Background: Diabetes mellitus is a chronic progressive metabolic disorder characterized by hyperglycaemia mainly due to absolute or relative deficiency of insulin hormone. This study assessed the knowledge and attitude of clients with diabetes and its relationship with self-management practices in Government hospitals in the Upper West Region of Ghana.Methods: The research was a cross-sectional survey and adopted stratified sampling technique to select 201 respondents. Questionnaires were used for data collection with a reliability coefficient of 0.8. The data was analyzed using the SPSS version 21.Results: Knowledge on diabetes was high with the overall mean percentage of 72.8%. Diabetes patients had positive attitude with mean percentage of 84.4%. There was also significant relationship between knowledge of diabetes and self-management practices (p=0.0001) as well as attitude of diabetes patients and self-management practices (p=0.001).Conclusions: Diabetes patients in the Upper West Region have in-depth knowledge on the disease condition, self-management practices and positive attitude. These sign of awareness of the disease will very much assist in making the control of the condition easier in the area.
The burden faced by informal caregivers in caring for a child diagnosed with HIV/AIDS, and placed on Antiretroviral Therapy (ART) is high due to the nature of the child’s dependence on the caregiver for fulfilling the child’s necessary needs. Evidence linking knowledge to the likelihood of performing the desired action exists. It is therefore crucial to explore caregivers’ knowledge of ART, and how that influences their children’s adherence to ART. The sought to explore the knowledge of informal caregivers on adherence to ART among their children with HIV/AIDS who received care at St. Joseph’s Hospital, Jirapa, Ghana. A qualitative phenomenology design was used. Data were collected from 13 purposively chosen caregivers of children with HIV/AIDS on ART at a hospital, using a semi-structured in-depth interview guide. A reflexive thematic analysis approach was used for data analysis. Informal caregivers were knowledgeable in the regularity of visits to the HIV Testing and Counselling (HTC) Centre for ARTs, identifying ARTs, ARTs administration, ARTs side effects identification, HIV transmission, and the nutritional restrictions for ARTs. A few, however, had misconceptions about HIV transmission. Informal caregivers still need education in the area of HIV transmission. The findings will guide nurses to focus on areas of education for informal caregivers to improve upon their knowledge of ART and to ensure increased adherence among children living with HIV/AIDS under their care.
The burden faced by informal caregivers in caring for a child diagnosed with HIV/AIDS, and placed on Antiretroviral Therapy (ART) is high due to the nature of the child’s dependence on the caregiver for fulfilling the child’s necessary needs. Evidence linking knowledge to the likelihood of performing the desired action exists. It is therefore crucial to explore caregivers’ knowledge of ART, and how that influences their children’s adherence to ART. The sought to explore the knowledge of informal caregivers on adherence to ART among their children with HIV/AIDS who received care at St. Joseph’s Hospital, Jirapa, Ghana. A qualitative phenomenology design was used. Data were collected from 13 purposively chosen caregivers of children with HIV/AIDS on ART at a hospital, using a semi-structured in-depth interview guide. A reflexive thematic analysis approach was used for data analysis. Informal caregivers were knowledgeable in the regularity of visits to the HIV Testing and Counselling (HTC) Centre for ARTs, identifying ARTs, ARTs administration, ARTs side effects identification, HIV transmission, and the nutritional restrictions for ARTs. A few, however, had misconceptions about HIV transmission. Informal caregivers still need education in the area of HIV transmission. The findings will guide nurses to focus on areas of education for informal caregivers to improve upon their knowledge of ART and to ensure increased adherence among children living with HIV/AIDS under their care.
A report by the World Health Organization (WHO) indicates that more than 33 million people and 4.4 million children are infected with HIV/AIDS worldwide (Rivera et al. 2020). As high as 90% of these infected persons are said to be in developing countries, which has resulted in the death of upto 3.2 million children. Rivera et al. (2020) further estimates that, of the 4.4 million children infected with HIV/ AIDS, 2.5 million are children of younger ages (below 15), of which 1.9 million are in sub-Sahara Africa. This shows that more than half of all infected young children are found in African countries such as Ghana.Another estimate by Owusu (2020) reveals that as much as 30,000 children between the ages of 10-14 years were reported to be infected with HIV in Ghana and the number of deaths of children within the same age range was 2441 in the year 2018. The Ghana AIDS Commission (2019) reports an HIV/AIDS prevalence of 0.72% among younger people (15-19 years) within the Upper West Region of Ghana (Ghana AIDS Commission, 2019).
Diabetes mellitus is a chronic progressive metabolic disorder characterized by hyperglycaemia mainly due to absolute or relative deficiency of insulin hormone. The study aimed at exploring the level of self-management practices among diabetes patients receiving care in public hospitals in the Upper West Region of Ghana. The research was a cross-sectional survey adopting stratified sampling technique to select 201 respondents. A questionnaire was used in the study for data collection with a reliability coefficient of 0.8. The data was analyzed using the SPSS version 21. Adherence to proper selfmanagement practices was high with a mean percentage of 64.7%. Demographic factors of diabetes patients did not have any effect on their Self-Management Practices (p>0.05). There were differences in Self-Management practices among group of diabetes patients receiving care at different hospitals (p<0.05). In conclusion, most diabetes patients in the Upper West Region adhered correctly to self-management practices. However, they needed to improve upon the management on monitoring of blood sugar level and foot care. There was a difference in self-management practices of diabetes patients who received care at Wa and Lawra. It was also found that sex, gender, district of location, occupation, and income among others did not have influence on self-management practice.
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