There are about 249 clinical studies being (or have been) conducted in Ghana. The country of the clinical trial is determined by the location of where the clinical research is being studied. Most studies are often held in multiple locations & countries.
The goal of this study is to evaluate the comparative effectiveness of the World Health Organization Package targeted at Cardiovascular (CV) risk assessment and hypertension control, delivered by Community Health Nurses as part of Ghana's Community based Health Planning and Services program, versus provision of health insurance coverage, on blood pressure reduction. Findings from this study will provide policy makers and other stakeholders needed information to recommend efficient cost-effective policy with regards to comprehensive CV risk reduction in patients with hypertension in low resource settings.
The purpose of this study was to determine whether young children receiving Vitamin A and Zinc supplements will have a lower incidence of symptomatic malaria than similar children receiving vitamin A supplements alone.
This study tried to prove that children given food supplements containing vitamin A would have better liver vitamin A stores than children given food supplements without vitamin A over a 5 month period.
A randomized controlled trial was conducted to assess the effectiveness of text reminders sent to ACT users through an automated text messaging system short-message-system. Study hypothesis: text message reminders increase adherence
A culturally-relevant, theoretically and empirically sound, patient-centered, standardized disclosure intervention that can be integrated into routine clinical pediatric HIV care has potential to prevent transmission and improve the welfare of children and their caregivers in Ghana and other resource-limited settings. Results from this project will also further an understanding of factors and processes driving pediatric HIV disclosure.The study hypothesis is that several key barriers to disclosure of HIV status can be modified and the process of disclosure promoted with an intervention approach that is grounded in a traditional Ghanaian concept.
Background: - Breast cancer is becoming more common in Africa. A higher number of cases appear in women under age 35 than in the developed world. However, little is known about the factors that may contribute to breast cancer in Africa. Researchers want to collect information from female patients in teaching hospitals in Accra and Kumasi, Ghana and to compare this information with that obtained from healthy women in the general population. These two hospitals treat most breast cancers in Ghana. The data will provide information regarding factors that predispose to the development of breast cancer among women in Ghana. Objectives: - To identify and study breast cancer risk factors in women in Ghana. Eligibility: - Women between 18 and 74 years of age who are diagnosed with breast cancer. - Participants will come from teaching hospitals in Accra and Kumasi, Ghana. Women without breast cancer will be identified from the 2010 Ghanaian Census for comparison purposes Design: - Participants will answer questions about their health and lifestyle. - Height, weight, and waist/hip measurements will be collected. - Blood and saliva samples will be collected. - Participants will be given a collection kit to collect a stool sample. - Treatment will not be provided as part of this study.
This is a WHO-sponsored trial. Combination therapy with streptomycin and rifampicin has been the standard antibiotic treatment for M. ulcerans infection since 2004. In March 2010, a WHO Technical Advisory Group recommended that a trial be carried out to develop a fully oral treatment for the disease. Although the current treatment is effective, injection with streptomycin is a problem. Several small observational studies (published and unpublished) have shown that a fully oral treatment is promising. This WHO sponsored study will be a randomized, controlled open label non-inferiority phase II/III, multi-centre trial (1 centre in Benin and 4 centres in Ghana), with two parallel treatment groups. The ultimate goal is to search for an effective alternative treatment to the current standard WHO-recommended therapy for all forms of Buruli ulcer, which includes injections of streptomycin with inherent logistic, operational and safety disadvantages. Financial and material support: 1. American Leprosy Missions, USA 2. Raoul Follereau Foundation, France 3. MAP International, USA 4. Sanofi, France 5. 7th Framework Programme of the European Union: BuruliVac project (241500) 6. Aranz Medical Limited, New Zealand
In areas of Africa where malaria is only a problem during a short rainy season, monthly courses of antimalarial drugs can provide very effective prevention of malaria in children. This approach, called intermittent preventive treatment in children (IPTc) but now known as Seasonal Malaria Chemoprevention (SMC), may also be useful in large areas of Africa where malaria is transmitted for longer each year. It is uncertain if IPTc would be effective, acceptable to communities or sustainable when delivered over a longer period, but this is an important public health question of key interest to policy makers, because in areas with a longer transmission season, the burden of malaria is typically higher than in highly seasonal areas. Another form of prevention that would be operationally easier for African countries to put into practice would be to treat malaria patients with long-lasting antimalarials, which protect children against further malaria episodes for several weeks. Because malaria disproportionately affects certain high risk children more than others, causing repeated attacks of fever and leading to severe anaemia, long-acting drugs may be a simple and effective way to target limited resources at the individuals who most need protection. This may be particularly beneficial where malaria is a seasonal problem, because repeated malaria attacks will not only be borne by a few unfortunate children, but will also occur close together in time. The investigators propose a clinical trial to evaluate these two forms of chemoprevention in Kumasi, Ghana, an area with an extended malaria transmission season. Children under 5 years of age currently have access to diagnosis and treatment of malaria via by community based health workers. Children enrolled in the study will receive either the standard community-based diagnosis and treatment, treatment with a longer-acting artemisinin combination therapy (ACT), or standard care plus five monthly courses of seasonal malaria chemoprevention (SMC) during the peak in transmission.
In Ghana the level of malnutrition is high among children below five years of age, particularly in rural areas. The objective of the study was to investigate the effects of an education intervention aimed at addressing poor complementary feeding (CF) practices on the food intakes and growth of young children in the Upper Manya Krobo district of Ghana. Interviews and focus group discussions involving community health and agricultural workers, as well as caregivers of children 6-24 months old were conducted to investigate the facilitators and challenges to optimal CF practices and education on CF. The trials of improved practices (TIPs) method was used to test the feasibility and acceptability of potential education messages among mothers of young children (6-24 months) living in the study area. Child welfare clinic centers in the area were randomly assigned to one of three groups which were control, nutrition education and integrated education. Mothers of children 6-24 months in the integrated education group received monthly nutrition education from community health volunteers and agricultural education from agricultural extension agents for six months in addition to standard monthly child growth monitoring services from community health nurses. Mothers in the nutrition education group received monthly nutrition education from community health volunteers for six months in addition to standard care. Mothers of 6-24 months in the control group received only the standard monthly child monitoring services. The effects of the educational intervention on maternal knowledge on optimal complementary feeding, as well as food intakes and growth of young children were determined among 367 mother-child dyads over a period of at least six months. The study hypothesised that mothers receiving the education would have improved knowledge on good complementary feeding practices compared to those in the control group. The study also hypothesised that young children in the integrated education would have better nutrient intakes and growth compared those in the nutrition education and control groups, and those in the nutrition education group would have better nutrient intakes and growth than the children in the control group. From the interviews and focus group discussions, reported initiation of CF was satisfactory, while other reported practices such as the addition of animal source foods, vegetables and fruits to young children's diet were found to be sub-optimal. Poverty and maternal time constraints were identified as the main challenges of optimal complementary feeding, while farming was seen as a facilitator. Lack of education materials, language barrier, maternal time constraints and lack of in-service training for health workers were the main challenges to education on complementary feeding. From the TIPS study, mothers expressed their willingness to improve the diets of their 6-24 months old children by adding or increasing the amount of animal source foods, dark-green leafy vegetables and fruits, as well as increasing feeding frequency daily. However, availability and affordability of protein-rich foods like animal source foods, groundnut paste and soya beans powder was a challenge for some mothers. The intervention did not lead to a significant improvement in maternal knowledge on complementary feeding practices. However, it showed a tendency to reverse a general decreasing trend in knowledge among mothers on appropriate complementary feeding practices in the study area. Significantly more children in the integrated education group consumed animal source foods compared those in the other two groups when compared at nine months after baseline. However, the intervention did not improve the general nutrient intakes and growth of the young children in the study area.
The purpose of this study is to determine whether giving the Human Rotavirus Vaccine on alternate dosing schedules will enhance the immune response to the vaccine in a low-resource, high-burden country in Africa. Alternate dosing schedules studied include giving the 2-dose vaccine schedule at a slightly older age and giving an additional dose of the vaccine.