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The influence of culture on open defaecation in some basic schools in selected districts in Ghana: A preliminary study.

ABSTRACT: Open defaecation has remained a major public and environmental health concern which has gained global attention. This study explored cultural factors including superstition, taboo, norms and values influencing open defaecation behaviour among basic school pupils in the Eastern and Volta Regions all within Southern Ghana. Self-reported data were collected from 400 pupils using structured questionnaire and focus group discussions. Descriptive, bivariate and multivariate statistics were used to analyze the quantitative data. The qualitative data was analyzed using thematic content analytical procedure. The results of the study showed, superstitions, traditional norms and taboo yielded statistically significant effect sizes with pupils' open defaecation behaviour: and superstition: r = 0.728, p< 0.05; traditional norms: r = 0.425, p <0.05; taboos: r = 0.462, p<0.05. The study concluded that superstitions and traditional norm and taboo constituted the key cultural drivers influencing pupils' open defaecation behaviour in the Eastern and Volta Regions. It is recommended that the Ministry of Education should incorporate open defaecation issues into the educational curriculum and develop culturally sensitive educational programs for a massive educational campaign to stop open defaecation in the schools. To ensure that the messaging for these campaigns resonate with target audience, communication campaigns should promote a number of positive emotional and social issues related to improved social status and positive self-esteem, better growth and economic opportunities with toilet use.

SUBMITTER: Adjibolosoo SV

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7537866 | biostudies-literature | 2020

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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The influence of culture on open defaecation in some basic schools in selected districts in Ghana: A preliminary study.

Adjibolosoo Saviour Victor SV Ofori Benjamin Dankyira BD Adongo Philip Baba PB Afranie Stephen S Yirenya-Tawiah Dzidzo Regina DR

PloS one 20201006 10

Open defaecation has remained a major public and environmental health concern which has gained global attention. This study explored cultural factors including superstition, taboo, norms and values influencing open defaecation behaviour among basic school pupils in the Eastern and Volta Regions all within Southern Ghana. Self-reported data were collected from 400 pupils using structured questionnaire and focus group discussions. Descriptive, bivariate and multivariate statistics were used to ana ...[more]

PMID: 33021987

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Project description:BackgroundMaternal, Child Health and Nutrition improvement Project is a World Bank-funded project implemented in all then ten regions of Ghana, which aims at improving access and utilization of community-based maternal, child health, and nutrition services in order to accelerate progress. This study is aimed at determining the implementation status of the project in the Eastern region by evaluating the processes involved and identifying implementation barriers from the perspective of implementors.MethodsThe study was a cross-sectional in design and employed a quantitative data collection approach in ten Community-based Health Planning and Services (CHPS) centres in five districts in the region. The project coordinators and Community Health Officers were interviewed using a structured questionnaire. The project implementation reports at the facility level were reviewed using a checklist. Tertile statistic was used to describe the status of the project implementation.ResultThe finding from this study indicated "complete implementation status" for maternal, child health, and nutrition activities of the project. However, none of the facilities evaluated had satisfactorily implemented all the governance processes and were therefore rated as "partially complete." The main implementation barriers emerged from the study were related to restrictions placed on the use of project funds and delays in the fund disbursement to CHPS facilities.ConclusionThe evidence gathered from the study showed very good implementation status for community-led maternal and child health service delivery, indicative of a positive response to the guidelines by service providers at the periphery and can have positive impact on the project's objectives and goals. Governance component of the project, however, revealed inadequate alignment with guidelines which might have been influenced by the lack of knowledge as a result of lack of training for implementers. This therefore calls for in-service training and improved supportive supervision at both administrative and service delivery levels.

Project description:Competition is a major determinant of plant community structure consisting of both species-specific and general interactions, either of which may influence competitive competency and plant abundance and size. In certain cases, competitive competency could arise from altered gene expression and plant function when an individual is confronted with new competitors. We explored competition at the molecular level by hybridizing transcripts from Centaurea maculosa (spotted knapweed), one of North America's most invasive exotic plant species, to an Arabidopsis microarray chip. Centaurea was grown in competition with Festuca idahoensis (Idaho fescue), a native grass species that generally has weak competitive effects against Centaurea; Gaillardia aristata (Indian blanketflower), a native herbaceous species that tends to be a much stronger competitor against Centaurea; or alone (control). The expression of some genes was found to be relatively uninfluenced by the type of plant neighbor, whereas other patterns of gene expression appeared to be more neighbor specific. To our knowledge, these results are the first to identify genes in an invasive plant that are induced or repressed by plant neighbors and provide a new avenue of insight into the molecular aspects of plant competitive ability. Keywords: treated vs.untreated First file, Chip 508 (9-9-05) is preliminary hyb data to see if this cross species hybridization is possible using the OAR27K chip Experiment 1 (chip 508): The Arabidopsis OAR27K gene chip was hybridized with labeled cDNA probes produced from samples of Centaurea RNA at the W.M. Keck Foundation Biotechnology Resource Laboratory, Yale University. The OAR27K gene chip consists of 70-mer oligos representing approximately 27,000 genes from Arabidopsis. Leaf and root samples were reverse-transcribed into cDNA and labeled with different fluorescent dyes (Cy3 and Cy5) using the Genisphere Array 900 kit (Cat No.W500180) (Genisphere, Hatfield PA). Labeled cDNAs were hybridized to the OAR27Kchip using the Advalytix ArrayBooster DNA Microarray Incubator (Advalytix, Boston MA). Approximately 10ug of each sample was used for hybridization.Experiment 2: Hybridization and labeling followed the procedure above, except the experimental control was Centaurea plants grown alone, and the test situations were Centaurea grown with Gaillardia or Festuca neighbors. In each experiment, RNA from Centaurea grown alone was used as the control (labeled with Cy3) and RNA from Centaurea grown with a neighbor was used as the test (labeled with Cy5). Two replicates were performed for each test situation.

Project description:Malaria is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality among children in Ghana. As part of the effort to inform local and national decision-making in preparation for possible malaria vaccine introduction, this qualitative study explored community-level factors that could affect vaccine acceptance in Ghana and provides recommendations for a health communications strategy. The study was conducted in two purposively selected districts: the Ashanti and Upper East Regions. A total of 25 focus group discussions, 107 in-depth interviews, and 21 semi-structured observations at Child Welfare Clinics were conducted. Malaria was acknowledged to be one of the most common health problems among children. While mosquitoes were linked to the cause and bed nets were considered to be the main preventive method, participants acknowledged that no single measure prevented malaria. The communities highly valued vaccines and cited vaccination as the main motivation for taking children to Child Welfare Clinics. Nevertheless, knowledge of specific vaccines and what they do was limited. While communities accepted the idea of minor vaccine side effects, other side effects perceived to be more serious could deter families from taking children for vaccination, especially during vaccination campaigns. Attendance at Child Welfare Clinics after age nine months was limited. Observations at clinics revealed that while two different opportunities for counseling were offered, little attention was given to addressing mothers' specific concerns and to answering questions related to child immunization. Positive community attitudes toward vaccines and the understanding that malaria prevention requires a comprehensive approach would support the introduction of a malaria vaccine. These attitudes are bolstered by a well-established child welfare program and the availability in Ghana of active, flexible structures for conveying health information to communities. At the same time, it would be important to improve the quality of Child Welfare Clinic services, particularly in relation to communication around vaccination.

Dataset Information

The influence of culture on open defaecation in some basic schools in selected districts in Ghana: A preliminary study.

Publications

The influence of culture on open defaecation in some basic schools in selected districts in Ghana: A preliminary study.

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