The Practice of Home Visiting by Community Health Nurses as a Primary Healthcare Intervention in a Low-Income Rural Setting: A Descriptive Cross-Sectional Study in the Adaklu District of the Volta Region, Ghana.

BACKGROUND: Home visit is an integral component of Ghana's PHC delivery system. It is preventive and promotes health practice where health professionals render care to clients in their own environment and provide appropriate healthcare needs and social support services. This study describes the home visit practices in a rural district in the Volta Region of Ghana. Methodology. This descriptive cross-sectional study used 375 households and 11 community health nurses in the Adaklu district. Multistage sampling techniques were used to select 10 communities and study respondents using probability sampling methods. A pretested self-designed questionnaire and an interview guide for household members and community health nurses, respectively, were used for data collection. Quantitative data collected were coded, cleaned, and analysed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences into descriptive statistics, while qualitative data were analysed using the NVivo software. Thematic analysis was engaged that embraces three interrelated stages, namely, data reduction, data display, and data conclusion. RESULTS: Home visit is a routine responsibility of all CHNs. The factors that influence home visiting were community members' education and attitude, supervision challenges, lack of incentives and lack of basic logistics, uncooperative attitude, community inaccessibility, financial constraint, and limited number of staff. Household members (62.3%) indicated that health workers did not adequately attend to minor ailments as 78% benefited from the service and wished more activities could be added to the home visiting package (24.5%). CONCLUSION: There should be tailored training of CHNs on home visits skills so that they could expand the scope of services that can be provided. Also, community-based health workers such as community health volunteers, traditional birth attendants, and community clinic attendants can also be trained to identify and address health problems in the homes.

Social Determinants of Health of Multicultural Adolescents in South Korea: An Integrated Literature Review (2018~2020)

Purpose@#This study is an integrated literature review to analyze health problems and social determinants of multicultural adolescents in South Korea. @*Methods@#An integrative review was conducted according to Whittemore & Knafl’s guideline. An electronic search that included publications from 2018 to 2020 in the PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane Library, CINAHL, RISS, and KISS databases was conducted. Of a total of 67 records that were identified, 13 finally met full inclusion criteria. Text network analysis was also conducted to identify keywords network trends using NetMiner program. @*Results@#The health problems of multicultural adolescents were classified into mental health (depression, anxiety, suicide and acculturative stress) and health risk behaviors (smoking, risky drinking, smartphone dependence and sexual behavior). As social determinants affecting the health of multicultural adolescents, the biological factors such as gender, age, and visible minority, and the psychological factors such as acculturative stress, self-esteem, family support, and ego-resiliency were identified. The sociocultural factors were identified as family economic status, residential area, parental education level, and parents' country of birth. As a result of text network analysis, a total of 41 words were identified. @*Conclusion@#Based on these results, mental health and health risk behaviors should be considered as interventions for health promotion of multicultural adolescents. Our findings suggest that further research should be conducted to broaden the scope of health determinants to account for the effects of the physical environment and health care system.

Reasons for Women's Choice of Elective Caesarian Section in Duayaw Nkwanta Hospital.

BACKGROUND: Caesarean section is one of the most commonly performed major surgeries in obstetric practice intended to save the mother and child and in turn reduce maternal and perinatal mortality. The steadily increasing global rate of caesarean section has become one of the most debated topics in maternity care. This study identified the factors that influence women's choice of elective cesarean sections in the Duayaw Nkwanta Hospital. METHODOLOGY: This study used descriptive cross-sectional survey method to collect data from 78 post-caesarean section women above age 18 years. A whole population sampling method was used to trace respondents to their homes to administer a pretested questionnaire. Data was double-entered into Microsoft Excel spreadsheet, compared, cleaned, and transported to Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 21. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics with a Pearson correlation test. RESULTS: Post-caesarean section women (37.2%) indicated CS is a pain-free method of birth while 57.1% reported CS is safe for both mother and baby. Others (28.2%) chose CS based on a friend's advice and 19.2% on religious advice. The relationship between age of respondents and the number of times of having CS showed a weak positive correlation (r= .170, N= 78, p≤0.136, two-tailed test). There was a significant positive correlation between average monthly income of respondents and the number of times of having a CS birth (r= .320, N= 78, p≤ 0.004). CONCLUSION: It is imperative that there is heightened interest in educating mothers on associated benefit and risk of elective caesarean sections as a method of birthing by nurses and midwives in the antenatal clinics.

Awareness and Malaria Prevention Practices in a Rural Community in the Ho Municipality, Ghana.

BACKGROUND: Malaria is no doubt a burden on both the financial and human resources of Ghana. In this study, we examined the awareness of malaria prevention practices among indigenes of Godokpe, a rural community in the Ho Municipality of Ghana. METHODS: This descriptive cross-sectional survey that used a self-developed questionnaire recruited 246 residents of Godokpe who were aged 18 years and above using a systematic sampling technique. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) was used to analyze data into descriptive and analytical statistics. The descriptive statistics comprised frequency, percentage, and means. Also, analytical statistics of cross tabulation was conducted considering a p<0.05 at a 95% Confidence Interval to be statistically significant. FINDINGS: About 54% and 20% of the respondents, respectively, had satisfactory and good levels of knowledge on malaria prevention. The methods used in malaria prevention included mosquito coils (72%), cleaning and prevention of water stagnation (62%), mosquito spray (54%), and mosquito net (59%). Also, malaria treatment methods mostly used were quinine (70%) and chloroquine (50.4%). The major sources of information on malaria were television (74%), health professionals (66%), schools (62%), family/friends (60%), and the Internet (51%). CONCLUSION: School children showed good understanding of malaria and its vectors. There is, therefore, the need to increase the empowerment of teachers with appropriate health information including malaria so that they can continue to deliver malaria information to the pupils.

Utilization of Insecticide Treated Bed Nets (ITNs) among Caregivers of Children under Five Years in the Ho Municipality.

BACKGROUND: In Ghana, attempts to control malaria through antimalarial medications are currently threatened by the emergence and spread of drug resistant malaria parasites. This, together with the increasing incidence of malaria, has heightened the need for a more effective method of controlling the spread. The use of Insecticide Treated Bed Net (ITN) has been recognised as an effective measure in the prevention of malaria. OBJECTIVE/PURPOSE: In this study, we examined the utilisation of ITN among caregivers of children under five years in Ho municipality of Ghana. METHODS: This descriptive cross-sectional study recruited 283 household representatives through a multistage sampling method. A questionnaire was used to collect the data and was analyzed using STATA version 14. Descriptive and inferential statistics were adopted in presenting the data. RESULTS: Ownership of ITN was higher (80.7%) than its utilisation (41.7%). The age of caregiver was strongly associated with the utilisation of ITN (AOR=2.00, 95% CI=0.00, 0.02, p<0.001) among children less than five years. Caregivers aged 26-35 were 49% times less likely to use an ITN as compared to those aged between 17 and 25 and the difference was statistically significant. CONCLUSION: In order to ensure a high ITN coverage and utilisation, there is the need for continuous distribution of ITNs to households. Households should be sensitized to use the nets to prevent the continuous spread of malaria.