Ghana Healthcaer Program 2020 Report
Website: auburn.edu/outreach/global
Aaron Carpenter, Outreach Coordinator
In March 2020, the Auburn University Ghana Healthcare Program conducted a community health clinic at two locations within Ghana: the capital of Accra and the Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolitan Assembly (STMA). As a result, the Auburn team served 677 patients through the Accra clinic and 733 patients through the STMA clinic for a total of 1,410 patients served.
With the assistance of Auburn University team members, 860 patients completed healthcare data forms at the community health clinics. This report highlights some key results of the collected data and the successes achieved during project year 2020.
Gender
Of the total patients served, females comprised 62 percent of the patients compared to 38 percent male. The urban Accra clinic experienced the most extensive gap at 76 percent female patients and only 24 percent male patients. The STMA clinic was less stark, with a 60/40 female to male patient ratio.
Chart 1: pie graph representing female to male ratio.
Age
The mean age served of the 860 patients is 31 years, with a standard deviation of 23.83. The data indicates the clinics served a majority younger population, with nearly 52 percent of patients falling within the 0-18 age range.
Table 1: bar graph displaying patients by age group.
Examining the table below, evidence shows that two symptoms were most common among patients: eye issues (52 percent) and headaches (49 percent). Moreover, roughly 27 percent of patients reported both eye issues and headache symptoms, suggesting a relationship could exist between the two symptoms.
Table 2: bar chart showing the recurrence of symptoms.
High blood pressure (hypertension) data were also collected. About 49 percent of adult patients had hypertension. Comparatively, the Center for Disease Control reports 45 percent of Americans have hypertension.1
Most patients to visit the clinics were multi-symptomatic. A large majority of patients (591) reported having two or more symptoms. Only 202 patients reported experiencing just one symptom, while 67 patients reported no symptoms at all.
Table 3: bar chart reporting multi-symptom patients.
The annual Ghana Healthcare Program is a collaborative effort of multiple Auburn University departments. Outreach Global thanks the School of Nursing, the Harrison School of Pharmacy, and the Department of Social Work for supporting our work, as we support theirs.
