Kofi Akohene Mensah

Benefits of Disclosure of HIV Status to Infected Children and Adolescents: Perceptions of Caregivers and Health Care Providers.

&NA; The rate of disclosure of HIV status to infected children and adolescents remains low in developing countries. We used a mixed‐method approach to determine the perceptions of caregivers and health care providers about the benefits of HIV status disclosure to infected children and adolescents and to assess the support needed by caregivers during disclosure. We recruited a convenience sample of 118 caregivers of HIV‐infected children and adolescents for the quantitative component of the study and completed in‐depth qualitative interviews with 10 purposefully sampled key informants, including health care providers and volunteer workers. The main benefits of disclosure included improved medication adherence and healthier, more responsible adolescent sexual behavior. The main supports required by caregivers during disclosure included biomedical information, emotional and psychological support, and practical guidelines regarding disclosure. We confirmed the importance of disclosure to HIV‐infected children and adolescents and the need to develop culturally specific disclosure guidelines.

Perceived social support disparities among children affected by HIV/AIDS in Ghana: a cross-sectional survey

BackgroundThe study investigated whether perceived social support varied among children who have lost their parents to AIDS, those who have lost their parents to other causes, those who are living with HIV/AIDS-infected caregivers and children from intact families (comparison group).MethodThis study employed cross-sectional, quantitative survey that involved 291 children aged 10–18 years in the Lower Manya Krobo District of Ghana and examined their social support disparities.ResultsMultivariate linear regressions indicate that children living with HIV/AIDS-infected caregivers reported significantly lower levels of social support compared with AIDS-orphaned children, other-orphaned children and non-orphaned children independent of socio-demographic covariates. Children who have lost their parents to other causes and other-orphaned children reported similar levels of social support. In terms of sources of support, all children orphans and vulnerable children were more likely to draw support from friends and significant others rather than from the family.ConclusionThe findings indicate a need to develop interventions that can increase levels of social support for orphaned and vulnerable children within the context of HIV/AIDS in Ghana, particularly networks that include the family.

Barriers and facilitators to Electronic Medical Records usage in the Emergency Centre at Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital, Kumasi-Ghana

Introduction The use of paper for record keeping (or a manual system) has been the order of the day in almost all health care facilities in resource poor countries. This system has presented numerous challenges, which the use of Electronic Medical Records (EMR) seeks to address. The objectives of the study were to identify the facilitators and barriers to EMR implementation in Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital’s (KATH) Emergency Centre (EC) and to identify lessons learned. These will help in implementation of EMR in ECs in similar settings. Methods This was a non-interventional, descriptive cross-sectional and purely qualitative study using a semi-structured interview guide for a study population of 24. The interviews were manually recorded and analysed thematically. EMR implementation was piloted in the EC. Some of the EC staff doubled as EMR personnel. An open source EMR was freely downloaded and customised to meet the needs of the EC. The EMR database created was a hybrid one comprising of digital bio-data of patients and scanned copies of their paper EC records. Results The facilitators for utilising the system included providing training to staff, the availability of some logistics, and the commitment of staff. The project barriers were funding, full-time information technology expertise, and automatic data and power backups. It was observed that with the provision of adequate human and financial resources, the challenges were overcome and the adoption of the EMR improved. Discussion The EMR has been a partial success. The facilitators identified in this study, namely training, provision of logistics, and staff commitment represent foundations to work from. The barriers identified could be addressed with additional funding, provision of information technology expertise, and data and power back up. It is acknowledged that lack of funding could substantially limit EMR implementation.