Healthy lifestyle behaviour among Ghanaian adults in the phase of a health policy change

Tagoe, Dake

Description

Many countries have adopted health policies that are targeted at reducing the risk factors for chronic non-communicable diseases. These policies promote a healthy population by encouraging people to adopt healthy lifestyle behaviours. This paper examines healthy lifestyle behaviour among Ghanaian adults by comparing behaviours before and after the introduction of a national health policy. The paper also explores the socio-economic and demographic factors associated with healthy lifestyle behaviour. Method Descriptive, bivariate and multivariate regression techniques were employed on two nationally representative surveys (2003 World Health Survey (Ghana) and 2008 Ghana Demographic and Health Survey) to arrive at the results. Results While the prevalence of some negative lifestyle behaviours like smoking has reduced others like alcohol consumption has increased. Relatively fewer people adhered to consuming the recommended amount of fruit and vegetable servings per day in 2008 compared to 2003. While more females (7.0%) exhibited healthier lifestyles, more males (9.0%) exhibited risky lifestyle behaviours after the introduction of the policy. Conclusion The improvement in healthy lifestyle behaviours among female adult Ghanaians will help promote healthy living and potentially lead to a reduction in the prevalence of obesity among Ghanaian women. The increase in risky lifestyle behaviour among adult male Ghanaians even after the introduction of the health policy could lead to an increase in the risk of non-communicable diseases among men and the resultant burden of disease on them and their families will push more people into poverty.

Informations

• Publié par: biomed
• Publié le: 01 janvier 2011
• Nombre de lectures: 5
• Langue: English

Extrait

Tagoe and DakeGlobalization and Health2011,7:7 http://www.globalizationandhealth.com/content/7/1/7

R E S E A R C HOpen Access Healthy lifestyle behaviour among Ghanaian adults in the phase of a health policy change * Henry A Tagoe and Fidelia AA Dake

Abstract Background:Many countries have adopted health policies that are targeted at reducing the risk factors for chronic noncommunicable diseases. These policies promote a healthy population by encouraging people to adopt healthy lifestyle behaviours. This paper examines healthy lifestyle behaviour among Ghanaian adults by comparing behaviours before and after the introduction of a national health policy. The paper also explores the socioeconomic and demographic factors associated with healthy lifestyle behaviour. Method:Descriptive, bivariate and multivariate regression techniques were employed on two nationally representative surveys (2003 World Health Survey (Ghana) and 2008 Ghana Demographic and Health Survey) to arrive at the results. Results:While the prevalence of some negative lifestyle behaviours like smoking has reduced others like alcohol consumption has increased. Relatively fewer people adhered to consuming the recommended amount of fruit and vegetable servings per day in 2008 compared to 2003. While more females (7.0%) exhibited healthier lifestyles, more males (9.0%) exhibited risky lifestyle behaviours after the introduction of the policy. Conclusion:The improvement in healthy lifestyle behaviours among female adult Ghanaians will help promote healthy living and potentially lead to a reduction in the prevalence of obesity among Ghanaian women. The increase in risky lifestyle behaviour among adult male Ghanaians even after the introduction of the health policy could lead to an increase in the risk of noncommunicable diseases among men and the resultant burden of disease on them and their families will push more people into poverty.

Background The overall health of individuals is impacted by lifestyle behaviours including healthy diets, physical activity, smoking and alcohol consumption. Unhealthy lifestyle behaviours particularly poor dietary practices, physical inactivity and smoking are major risk factors for condi tions like overweight, obesity and chronic noncommu nicable diseases [13]. Research in Ghana indicates that the prevalence of obesity is increasing especially among women [4]. The rising prevalence of obesity in Ghana is worrying because epidemiological studies have consis tently shown an increased risk of morbidity, disability and mortality with obesity [5]. Findings from a study using data from a nationally representative sample sur vey (World Health Survey 2003) conducted in Ghana revealed that about 18% of the respondents had been

* Correspondence: [e-mail] Regional Institute for Population Studies, University of Ghana, P.O. Box LG 96, Legon, Accra, Ghana

diagnosed with one or more chronic noncommunicable disease(s) with 45% of them currently receiving treat ment (Tagoe, Household burden of chronic disease in Ghana, Unpublished). Health reports show that the pre valence of lifestyle diseases (chronic noncommunicable diseases) such as stroke, hypertension, type 2 diabetes, and other cardiovascular diseases are on the increase and are now among the top ten inpatient cause of death in Ghana [6]. Urbanisation, globalisation and nutritional transition are major drivers of unhealthy lifestyle behaviours in developing countries [79]. Rapid urbanisation and glo balisation is accompanied by behavioural change which exposes many individuals to the risk of chronic non communicable diseases and mortality. Fast paced eco nomic transition has also resulted in reduced physical activity levels, decreased hours of rest and increasing levels of stress [8,9].

© 2011 Tagoe and Dake; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.