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Background: This paper explored the health beliefs and behaviours of families towards the health needs of children with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) in Accra, Ghana. The aim was to inform health promotion strategies for the children and their families. Method: Twenty‐two parents of children with IDD participated in this study. Semi‐structured interviews were the primary means of data collection. The interviews were analysed using constant comparison. Results: The signs that alerted the parents that the children might be ill included high temperature, vomiting and excessive sleep. The parents explained that some children expressed feelings of ill‐health through verbal or non‐verbal communication. Most of the parents self‐prescribed medication for the children or waited for symptoms to persist for a while before accessing health care because they experienced difficulties managing the behavioural challenges associated with the IDD of the children in public and attitudinal barriers when accessing health care. The parents did not often patronise health facilities in their neighbourhoods due to private health insurance requirements for accessing care at designated facilities, poor confidence in neighbourhood facilities and long‐term established relationships with facilities elsewhere. Further, many parents did not patronise religious interventions for the children. However, some parents explained that in addition to seeking medical care to address the physical symptoms of the children's disabilities and/or illnesses, they sought religious interventions because they believed that there could be a spiritual dimension to the situation. Conclusion: The findings highlight key areas to address in health promotion for children with IDD and their families in Accra, Ghana. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Developmental Medicine & Child Neurology is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Tropical Medicine & International Health is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Objective: To examine the social costs to women of skilled attendance at birth in rural Ghana.Method: Ethnographic data were obtained through participant observation, interviews, case histories, and focus groups and were analyzed alongside data from a birth cohort of 2878 singletons born in the Kintampo study district between July 2003 and June 2004.Results: Most women delivered at home. Home delivery raises a woman's status in her community, while seeking skilled attendance lowers it. Women feel that seeking assistance in childbirth wastes other people's time and they value secrecy in labor. Negative treatment by health providers and expensive supplies needed for delivery also act as barriers.Conclusion: The social costs of obtaining skilled attendance at birth must be offset by community level strategies such as mobilization of older women and husbands, and ensuring health providers extend professional, humane care to laboring women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gyekye, S. A.&Salminen, S. (2005). Responsibility assignment at the workplace: A Finnish and Ghanaian perspective.Scandinavian Journal of Psychology,46, 43–48.The study sought to explore management's responsibility in accident causation as perceived by Ghanaian and Finnish industrial workers. It was anticipated that the Ghanaian industrial workers would externalize accident causality more than their Finnish counterparts, and would assign only marginal responsibility to the management for industrial accidents. The predicted difference was based on the premise that the difference in these two cultures on thepower-distance culturaldimensions would have an impact on their responsibility assignments. The results confirmed our expectation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]