The fourth preprint journal club
If you want to read the previous previous journal clubs, select here
- Venue: Waimairi Staff Room (Waimairi 219, School of Health Sciences staff room in the second level)
- Time: 10-11 AM, 10th April, Tuesday
- Topic: Hypertension and Diabetes Management: a Policy Perspective from Ghana
- Discussant: Mark Owusu
- Link to the preprint article that you can read or download: Click to access the article
- Link to writing a review of the article: Click to access the document to write a review, you have to be member of the group to write a review
- to join the preprint journal club, visit: Visit the UC Preprint review group
- Summary:
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine how Ghana is managing and responding to the challenge of hypertension and diabetes.
Design/methodology/approach - Data collection involved individual interviews with policy-makers, providers, payers, health managers, and participants from patient and advocacy groups at district and national levels; and focus group discussions with hypertensive and diabetic patients. This was supported by analysis of documentation detailing activities that have been undertaken in response to the management of hypertension and diabetes in Ghana.
Findings - The Ghanaian health sector has drafted overarching policies and strategies on management of diabetes, hypertension, other non-communicable diseases, tobacco, alcohol, and nutrition-related issues. Availability of funds is the main barrier to the implementation of policies. Besides, the response of the health sector to address the problems of hypertension and diabetes is focused more on clinical management than prevention; while the structures and processes to manage diabetes and hypertension are available at all levels of service delivery, more needs to be done on preventive aspects.
Originality/Value - This is the first study to combine individual interviews with key stakeholders, focus groups with patients, and document analysis to review policy implementation on the management of hypertension and diabetes in Ghana. The authors believe that the evidence from this research will help inform future policy initiatives on hypertension and diabetes in Ghana.