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A study on non-communicable diseases (NCDs) conducted at Ga Mashie in Accra has revealed that six out of 10 residents in that area had either hypertension, diabetes or were obese.

Particularly, for diabetes, the study found that the prevalence was 8.2 per cent while hypertension prevalence increased by 19 per cent between 2013 and 2023.

It found out that those with diabetes had a lower quality of life compared to those without diabetes.

The study was conducted by the Contextual Awareness Response and Evaluation; Diabetes in Ghana (CARE Diabetes) project team, made up of people from the University of Ghana, Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research, UHAS and with funding from MRC of the UK Research and Innovation.

The aim of the study was to generate contextual understandings of diabetes in Ga-Mashie and identify opportunities for community-based intervention strategies for diabetes prevention and control.

Adults aged 25 years and above across 80 enumeration areas drawn from the 2021 Ghana Population and Housing Census were randomly sampled for the study.

Knowledge of diabetes

At a dissemination meeting of the study held in Accra yesterday, a co-investigator of the CARE Diabetes team, Dr Raphael Awuah, who presented the findings together with Dr Sandra Boatemaa Kushitor, said the study identified that though knowledge of the causes of diabetes was fairly high in the community, there were some misconceptions.

He said it further found out that while average income in the area was very low around less than GHc600, for those with diabetes in the community, they were spending 85 per cent of this income to manage their condition.

It found that majority of them were not on health insurance and so they were paying directly out of their pockets to seek health care.

“There is plethora of healthcare service providers but one-third of those living with diabetes were seeking care from biomedical sources,” the findings of the study revealed.