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Ministry of Health Ghana Health Service, Ghana
Biography
Divine Darlington Logo is his name and he works with Ministry of Health/Ghana Health Service as the Technical officer for Tobacco control for more than a decade. He had a Master of Philosophy (MPhil) in environmental Science from University of Ghana Legon. He is currently a PhD students (Public Health) in Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology Kumasi, Ghana. He played key role in passing the Ghana Tobacco control law which is embedded in the Public Health Act (Act 851) and also the tobacco control Legislative Instrument L.I. 2247 2016. He presented papers on Global Platforms such as Tobacco or Health in Singapore and Cape Town, Such Africa. He also represented his country on WHO FCTC conference of Party in Seoul, South Korea, Moscow Russia and other tobacco control conferences. He is a strong advocate for tobacco control and currently pursuing a PhD with a project area in tobacco control.
Abstract
Introduction: In compliance with countries’ obligation to meet the various articles enshrined in the World Health Organization (WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), Ghana has conducted several waves of Global Youth Tobacco Survey (GYTS) to monitor youth tobacco use. We present results of the first ever assessment of shisha use among the youth in Junior High Schools across the country. Methods: The GYTS is a cross sectional study that employed a two –stage cluster randomized sample design to get a representative sample of students in Junior High Schools aged 13-15. The GYTS questionnaire is a pre-validated set of questionnaire with in-country adaptation of contextual country specific questions as may be applicable. Overall, seventy-seven (77) schools were selected from the three ecological zones across the country and participated in the survey. STATA software was used in the data analysis. Results: A total of 5664 students who participated in the survey, 5116 were in the age group 13-15 years representing (2,574)50.5% for boys and (2,519) 49.5% for girls. Majority of the students (2,470) 48.3% were also from the middle/forest zone. Among these adolescents, 2.8% had ever smoked Shisha. The prevalence of current shisha use among these students was 1.3%, while more girls smoked shisha compared with boys (1.7%, 95% CI: 0.63% - 4.51% vs. 0.4%, 95% CI: 0.23% - 0.71%; p-value=0.005) respectively. Additionally, of the current shisha smokers, 50.5% of them smoked three sessions per day. Surprisingly, about 60% of the current shisha users smoked at home. Also, due to their age, 74.3% of the current shisha users had been refused shisha purchase and use in the past 30 days prior to the survey. Meanwhile, almost 62% of the current shisha users had attempted to quit in the past 12 months and close to 50% of the survey participants thought that smoke from shisha was not harmful to their health. Conclusion: Shisha use is relatively high among Junior High School Students in Ghana, particularly among Girls. This has obvious implications for a country with limited resources for the control of the effects of non-communicable diseases of which smoking is a major risk factor. Strengthening and enforcement of the tobacco control law in Ghana is recommended to control shisha use in support of public health efforts. There is need to provide cessation support for persons who are prepared to quit shisha use.
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