Background Functional difficulties have long-term implications for children's physical, cognitive, emotional, social, and academic growth and development. Although the subject of functional difficulties has received enough scholarly attention in the developed world, few studies have addressed the issue in Ghana. Therefore, the study aimed to regress child, maternal and household and geographical level factors associated with the functional difficulty of children in Ghana. Method We analysed the 2017/18 multiple indicator cluster survey dataset. The study sample consists of weighted cases of 21,871 children within the ages of 5–17 years. Summary statistics were produced for the study variables. Bivariate analyses were performed to select significant correlates for the multivariate analysis. We accounted for sample design and weight before using Poisson regression techniques to do the bivariate and multivariate analysis. Results These factors were significantly associated with functional difficulties among 5–17 years old children in Ghana: not covered with health insurance, mothers who have a functional difficulty and those without information on their functional difficulty status, and children who dwelt in richer households compared to the richest households. Compared to the northern region, children from the remaining nine regions in Ghana were more likely to have had a child functional difficulty. Conclusion Given the results, the government of Ghana and other development partners should promote policies and programs to reduce the consequences of disability or functional difficulties in children by taking into consideration factors like mothers' functional difficulty, access to health insurance, and regional and economic disparities in Ghana.

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Objective: Alcohol has become a regular part of social functions in many cultures. Before the advent of alcohol use disorder becoming a nosological entity, many cultures noted the detrimental association with alcohol use, particularly in its excess use. With such observation, many cultures and even medical research, have tried in many ways to either justify or explain away the harmful effects of alcohol use and gone ahead to promote the use for the most mundane effects. Such explanations for alcohol use over time become acceptable in many cultures and can be viewed asmyths. Four of such myths associated with alcohol use in Ghana, are presented here. Methodology: These myths were drawn from a bigger study that looked at the prevalence of alcohol use disorder in an engineering company with mixed methods. A thematic analysis of their responses was used to arrive at these myths. Results: Participants believed that alcohol is sexually potentiating, improves appetite and quality of sleep, and has medicinal qualities like “curing” chicken pox and necessary for successful surgery. Apart from the inconclusive evidence of alcohol, particularly red wine,protecting against cardiovascular death, we could not substantiate any of these claims from medicine. Conclusion: Myths of alcohol use in different cultures need to be incorporated in preventive strategies adopted for alcohol use disorder for a comprehensive public health approach to curb the menace. Such myths should be integrated in the training of health workers to help them understand the addictive behaviour of alcohol users and the anthropological underpinnings to alcohol use.

Disasters have become a common threat to many societies across the globe. In developing communities, there is severe impact as disasters tend to wash away the little gains they have made. As much as there are community level effects, disasters leave significant individual impacts that deserve attention. This qualitative study study used the phenomenological approach to explore the lived experiences of 13 victims of the 3rd June, 2015 flood/fire disaster in Accra, Ghana. It was found that victims perceive the cause of the disaster to include engineering failures and anti-environmental behaviours. Their experiences include biographical disruption such as disfigurement, death and loss of property, and psychological impacts such as anxiety, behavioural changes and mood effects. Participants’ adjustment experiences involve societal, and family level intervention, spiritual support and post disaster vulnerability issues. It is concluded that the struggles of disaster victims in Ghana are real and that there is the need for comprehensive intervention and support for victims. The implications of the findings regarding are discussed.

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