Search results

The perceptions of disability conditions held by parents and immediate family members directly determine the types of treatments that are likely to opt for persons with disabilities whenever they are ill. Family level drivers of access to healthcare among persons with disabilities in the Bosomtwe district of Ghana.

A qualitative case study was conducted in which data were collected from 60 participants selected purposively. Face-to-face interviews were conducted, and the results were presented thematically.

The drivers identified have been categorized into positive and negative depending on how they influenced persons with disabilities’ access to health care. Payment of medical bills, physical access support, the narration of health condition to a health-care provider, spiritual support, care and love were the positives while perceived spiritual cause of disability, preference for alternative treatment centers, unwillingness to support reproductive and specialized health care.

This study had some limitations, and one of such is the non-inclusion of disabled people who had not been registered by the department of social welfare but resided in the district who could have provided rich information to the study. However, their exclusion did not affect the quality of data obtained, as those who were registered and selected for the study gave adequate information about the issues that were considered during the study.

Family members of persons with disabilities play key roles in promoting their access to health care; therefore, there is the need for stakeholders to put in measures that will limit misconceptions about disability not only for the general public but also for individuals like parents and immediate family members of persons with disabilities.

Edible insects have emerged as a promising inexpensive option to address malnutrition among vulnerable groups in the world. However, it is not clear whether including insects in diets can improve health outcomes. This paper aimed to investigate the impact of edible insect consumption on human health.

A search was conducted in PubMed Central, BioMed Central, Plosone, Cochrane, Google Scholar, Google Search and bibliographies for all human studies on the impact of edible insect consumption on human health published from January 1990 to April 2018.

Twelve studies met the inclusion criteria. Consumption of cereals fortified with edible insects improved iron status and growth in infants and led to the development of life threatening anaphylactic reactions in sensitive people.

Edible insects are nutritious. More rigorous studies are needed to confirm nutrient bioavailability, acceptability and nutritional benefits in humans.

This review shows that the utilization of edible insects as food promotes desirable health outcomes, but caution must be taken to prevent allergic reactions in some cases.

The nutritional status of a woman before and during pregnancy is important for a healthy pregnancy outcome. The increasing prevalence of maternal overweight and obesity worldwide has become a problem of concern among public health professionals. The purpose of this paper is to review the evidence regarding the impact of maternal weight on pregnancy outcomes to facilitate the provision of evidence-based information to pregnant women during antenatal clinics in Ghana.

A search was conducted in PubMed, PLOS ONE, Cochrane, Embase and bibliographies for all studies on maternal weight and pregnancy outcomes published from January 2000 to May 2013. The key words used for the search were: “pre-pregnancy BMI”, “gestational weight gain”, “maternal weight”, “pregnancy outcomes” and “birth outcomes”.

The search yielded 113 papers; out of these, 35 studies were included in the review after exclusion of duplicates and irrelevant papers. Excluded papers included animal studies and human studies that did not meet inclusion criteria.

The review only considered papers published from 2000 to 2013 and might have left out other important papers published before 2000 and after 2013.

The origins of the studies included in the review suggest paucity of studies on maternal weight and pregnancy outcomes in developing countries where there is a double burden of malnutrition. There is the need for more studies to be initiated in this area.

Results of this review have revealed that the extremes of maternal weight prior to and during pregnancy increase the risk of maternal and fetal complications.

This paper provides evidential information on the impact of maternal weight on pregnancy outcomes for counseling during antenatal clinics.

This study aims to examine the motivations and supports of stakeholders in the slum communities, Ghana.

Two-stage methodologies were used for data collection. Published Google News articles about the phenomenon as well as exploratory qualitative in-depth interviews with 15 participants.

The evidence shows that structured and unstructured are the two main categories of stakeholders operating in the space of slums in Ghana. It shows that stakeholders are motivated by their objectives and ethical or moral obligations to provide support in the form of consumables, housing and finance to the slums.

Because of the data collection regime used in this project, findings are specific to the Ghanaian context and not generalisable. However, the results could be beneficial in other contexts with similar slum phenomena.

The conclusions drawn serve as a springboard for urban managers responsible for slum administration and management to develop policy packages to incentivise and enlist more non-slum stakeholders in the existing stakeholders.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is one of the few that expands the frontiers of the stakeholder model within context to discover specific slum stakeholders, their motivations and support for the slums in a consolidated manner.

The purpose of this study is to examine the net effect of golf courses’ proximity on home sale prices in Kern County, California.

A spatial Durbin error model is used with sales price data for 1,693 homes sold in Kern County in the third quarter of 2018. This paper compares 90 different spatial econometric models using Bayesian techniques to produce posterior model probabilities which guided model selection and the number of neighbors to use.

The results show that significant spatial dependence exists in home values in Kern County. Point estimates indicate that homes abutting golf courses are valued at less than those which are not. This study also finds that the farther away from golf courses the average home is, the higher its value.

This study contributes to the existing literature in three dimensions. First, this paper analyzes whether proximity to golf courses impacts home values in Kern County where a study of this nature has not been conducted. Second, the analysis uses transaction data for 2018 which was a period when the sport’s popularity was fading and golf courses closing. Third, Bayesian model comparison techniques are used to select the appropriate model.