Socio-cultural factors influencing adolescent pregnancy in Ghana: a scoping review.

BACKGROUND: Adolescent pregnancy is a public health challenge that has well-defined causes, associated health risks, and social and economic consequences for adolescent, their families, communities, and society. The purpose of this scoping review is to summarize studies published on socio-cultural determinants of adolescent pregnancy in Ghana. METHODS: Search for records was done in four major databases, including PubMed CENTRAL, Science Direct and JSTOR. Records from Google and Google Scholar were also added, and results and findings from published and unpublished studies were included. All the 22 studies that met the eligibility criteria, were critically appraised. The guidelines for conducting scoping reviews by Arksey and O'Malley were followed. RESULTS: The result revealed that poverty, peer influence, low level of education, dysfunctional family, lack of communication between parents and their daughters, lack of sexual and reproductive health education, child marriage, coerced sex, misconception and non-usage of contraceptives, and decline in cultural values such as puberty rites and virginity inspection are some of the determinants of adolescent pregnancy in Ghana. The study also showed that there is a lack of high-quality observational studies that adjust for confounding variables. CONCLUSION: Interventions and policies should be designed to take into consideration the needs, context, and background of adolescents. Programmes to enhance adolescent reproductive health need to consider multilevel factors such as person, family, community, institutions, national, and global issues that affect such programmes.

Psychological impact of COVID-19 on health workers in Ghana: A multicentre, cross-sectional study.

INTRODUCTION: The COVID-19 pandemic has exacted an appreciable burden on health systems globally including adverse psychological impacts on health workers. This study sought to assess COVID-19-related fear, depression, anxiety and stress among hospital staff, potential factors that may help reduce its psychological effects and their personal coping strategies. The study will help to highlight the psychological impact of COVID-19 on Ghanaian health workers and indirectly serve as a needs assessment survey for input to support affected staff and the broader health system. METHODS: A cross-sectional survey was conducted among health workers in three hospitals in the Ashanti Region of Ghana from 11 July 2020 to 12 August 2020. Demographic data and scores from the validated DASS-21 and Fear of COVID-19 scales and two other scales developed de novo were entered from 272 self-administered questionnaires and analyzed for means, frequencies and proportions. Fisher's exact test analysis was done to ascertain associations between selected independent variables and depression, anxiety, stress and fear. Parametric and non-parametric tests were used to compare the mean and median scores of the outcome variables across the three study hospitals. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: Over 40% of respondents had fear while 21.1%, 27.8% and 8.2% had depression, anxiety and stress, respectively. Positive attitudes from colleagues and the government's tax-free salary relief were some factors said to reduce the psychological effects while over half of participants indicated praying more often as a coping strategy. There is a need for the health system to recognize the presence of these adverse psychological effects in health workers and take pragmatic steps to address them.