Understanding cultural influences on back pain and back pain research.

Low back pain is highly prevalent and places a considerable burden on individuals, their families and communities. This back pain burden is unequally distributed around the world and within populations. Clinicians and researchers addressing back pain should be aware of the cultural, social and political context of back pain patients and how this context can influence pain perception, disability and health care use. Culture, which influences the beliefs and behaviour of individuals within a social group, could be considered an important contributor to the unequal distribution of back pain. However, there is paucity of high-quality research exploring the influence of culture on the experience and management of back pain. Further development and testing of specific tools, assessment methods and communication strategies are needed to improve our understanding of how cultural practices, values and identifications affect those dealing with back pain.

Screening for developmental delay among children attending a rural community welfare clinic in Ghana.

BACKGROUND: Periodic screening for developmental delays (DD) could avert the incidence of disability among children. However, such routine programme is yet to take off in rural welfare clinics in Ghana. METHOD: Mothers of under-5 children who were attending rural child welfare clinic participated in this study. The socio-demographic data of the mothers and their children were recorded. The children were screened to assess their gross motor skills, fine motor skills, communication skills, problem solving/cognition and social/personal interaction using Ages and Stages Questionnaire. Score below the threshold points on a developmental domain defines DD for a child. Data analysis involved percentages and frequency while Chi-square was performed to determine the associations between the selected socio-demographic risk factors and DD. Alpha value was set at p < 0.05. RESULTS: Three hundren and thirty (330) children were screened and majority 60(18%), were found within the age range 3 months 1 day to 5 months 0 day. 251(76%) had normal weight (2.5 kg-3.5) while 26(7.6%) were underweight (<2.5 kg). Generally, 147(44.6%) of the children had DD in the different domains of the questionnaires. 41(12.4%) had DD in social/personal interaction while 19(5.8%) were delayed in the communication domain. Birth weight and duration of gestation were significantly associated with communication domain while the level of education of the mothers and duration of gestation were significantly associated with gross motor domain. CONCLUSION: An appreciable proportion of the children were found to experience developmental delays and the most prevalent occurence was in personal/social interaction. Birth weight, gestational age and maternal educational level provide insight into a link with communication and gross motor skills.

Nosocomial infections: knowledge and source of information among clinical health care students in Ghana.

BACKGROUND: This study determined and compared the knowledge of nosocomial infections among clinical health care students at the College of Health Sciences, University of Ghana. METHODS: Two hundred undergraduate health care students from four academic programs participated in the study. The study sample was drawn from each academic program by a simple random sampling technique using the class directory from each course. The Infection Control Standardized Questionnaire (ICSQ) was used to assess the knowledge of students about three main domains, ie, hand hygiene, nosocomial infections, and standard precautions. A maximum score of 50 was obtainable, and respondents with scores ≥70% were classified as having a satisfactory knowledge. The response on each item was coded numerically to generate data for statistical analysis. Comparison of knowledge on the domains among categories of students was assessed using the Kruskal-Wallis test, while associations between courses of study and knowledge about nosocomial infections were determined using the Chi-square test. All statistical tests had a significant level of 5% (P < 0.05) RESULTS: Overall mean percentage score of the participants on ICSQ was 65.4 ± 2.58, with medical, physiotherapy, radiography, and nursing students recording mean percentage scores of 70.58 ± 0.62, 65.02 ± 2.00, 64.74 ± 1.19, and 61.31 ± 2.35, respectively. The main source of information about the prevention of nosocomial infections as cited by participants was their routine formal training in class. There was no significant association (P > 0.05) between course of study and knowledge of students about preventive measures for nosocomial infections. CONCLUSION: The students sampled demonstrated moderate knowledge of nosocomial infections and this was acquired largely through formal classroom training. These findings underscore the need for more emphasis on education about this important source of infection in the clinical training curriculum.