Derek Anamaale Tuoyire

• Ph.D
• Lecturer at University of Cape Coast

Association of breastfeeding duration with overweight and obesity among women in Ghana. Background: There is a general concurrence on the health benefits that breastfeeding confers to children, including offering maximal protection against obesity across their life course. However, the scientific evidence on similar benefits for women who breastfee...

Introduction The persistence of healthcare utilization disparities in Ghana despite several policy efforts highlights the urgency of understanding its determinants to enhance equitable health access. We sought to examine the determinants of healthcare utilization in Ghana. Methods We used the 2017 Ghana Living Standard Survey (GLSS) data. This was...

Background Neonatal Sepsis remains a significant burden globally, accounting for over 2.5 million neonatal deaths annually, with low-and middle-income countries (LMIC) including Ghana disproportionately affected. The current study sought to ascertain the prevalence of neonatal sepsis and associated factors based on analysis of institutional records...

Background Cervical cancer remains a disease of significant concern to women’s health. The aim of this study was to identify predictors of knowledge of cervical cancer among women living with HIV and those with negative or unknown HIV status at the Cape Coast Teaching Hospital (CCTH). Methods This study was based on a larger hospital-based analyti...

Background Scant West African data on non‐alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) means there is little representation of this population in the modelling used to derive biomarkers and predictive indices for risk stratification of patients for the presence of hepatic steatosis. This study evaluates the performance of the fatty liver index (FLI), hepa...

Background Despite the large volume of scientific evidence on the rapid spread of the COVID-19 pandemic and associated high morbidity and mortality, little is known about the sociocultural disruptions which ensued. The current study explored the nuanced navigation of the COVID-19-related death and burial protocols and its impact on traditional buri...

Localisation of vaccine production is essential worldwide, but it is particularly crucial for Africa. This continent is more vulnerable to disease burdens and also lags behind other continents regarding access to vaccines. Moreover, many people in Africa have a long-standing apathy towards locally made products and services. This mindset raises the...

Background Utilization of adequate and quality prenatal healthcare services confers critical benefits to women and their unborn children. However, utilization rates remain low in many countries in Africa. Several studies have attempted to understand the primary drivers behind these low statistics. This article contributes to this discourse by exami...

The global burden of malaria continues to be a significant public health concern. Despite advances made in therapeutics for malaria, there continues to be high morbidity and mortality associated with this infectious disease. Sub-Saharan Africa continues to be the most affected by the disease, but unfortunately the region is burdened with indigent h...

Introduction: Intravenous (IV) cannulation is the commonest invasive procedure among hospitalised patients. It is however associated with risks and complications that can have an adverse impact on the clinical outcome of the patient.Aim: To assess the incidence of and risk factors for development of phlebitis following peripheral IV cannulation at...

Background Ultrasound is now the initial imaging modality of choice for detection and characterization of lesions of the thyroid gland. Ultrasound imaging studies of the thyroid gland report varied prevalence of asymptomatic thyroid nodules (ATN), ranging from 20 to 67%. This study estimated the prevalence, characterized and determined factors asso...

Objectives: This study sought to determine the presentation, treatment and outcomes of breast cancer among women in Cape Coast, Ghana. Design: Retrospective medical record review. Setting: Cape Coast Teaching Hospital, Cape Coast, Ghana. Participants: Female breast cancer patients. Interventions: None. Main outcome measures: Proportion o...

Introduction: the purpose of this study was to measure thyroid volumes among normal sub-population of Ghanaians using ultrasonography in order to help provide preliminary local thyroid gland volume reference data for use in Ghana. Methods: this was a cross-sectional study in which the thyroid glands of 320 normal adults aged 18 to 95 years from si...

Although developing countries are experiencing some of the fastest rises in the prevalence of adult overweight and obesity, little is known about the pace of the problem among young people in transition from adolescence to adulthood. This study examined the trend and associated socio-demographic predictors of overweight/obesity (BMI ≥25kg/m ² ) fro...

Background: Vasectomy is one of the safest and inexpensive modern contraceptive methods but it remains relatively ‘invisible’ in Ghana. Support of women may be a significant incentive in influencing their partners to adopt vasectomy. Objective: To examine the perspectives of women on vasectomy as a contraceptive option. Materials and Methods: A cro...

Background Although the public health importance of the association between television (TV) viewing and obesity and/or related outcomes have been demonstrated in both cross-sectional and prospective studies elsewhere, similar studies are lacking within the African region. With the view to fill this gap in the literature, the current study explored...

Background Sex composition of living children within the context of “sex preference” and its association with various reproductive health outcomes has been extensively studied in South and South East Asia. Although sex preference has been observed in sub-Saharan Africa, there is paucity of research on sex composition of living children and its asso...

Background: This study examined the association between perception of risk for hypertension and overweight/obesity. Design: Cross-sectional questionnaire-based survey. Setting: Out-patient department of the Central Regional Hospital in Cape Coast, Ghana. Participants: Adult men and women at least 18 years old. Interventions: None. Main ou...

Body size issues are gaining public health attention because of the fast rising epidemic of overweight and obesity across the globe. This study explored Ghanaian women’s subjective perceptions regarding ideal body size for women. A purposive sampling strategy was employed in recruiting 36 women across the body weight spectrum from Tamale (n = 17) a...

The timing of first sexual intercourse (FSI) has been linked with subsequent sexual risk-taking behaviours and associated negative health outcomes. Nonetheless, there is a lack of multi-countries studies exploring the relationship between timing of FSI and subsequent number of sexual partnerships. Our aim in this paper was to aggregate evidence fro...

Hypertension is a significant contributor to the global burden of cardiovascular and related target organ diseases such as heart failure, coronary heart disease, stroke and kidney failure, and their associated premature morbidity, mortality and disability. Marital status is an important social characteristic known to predict a range of health outco...

This study aimed to contribute to the evidence on the timing of sexual debut in young people in sub-Saharan African countries. Data were extracted from 34 nationally representative surveys conducted in the region between 2006 and 2014. The study sample comprised unmarried women (n=167,932) and men (n=76,900) aged 15-24 years. Descriptive techniques...

Background: Globally, male involvement in maternal health care services remains a challenge to effective maternal health care accessibility and utilization. Objective: This study assessed male involvement in maternal health care services and associated factors in Anomabo in the Central Region of Ghana. Methods: Random sampling procedures were...

Background Helicobacter pylori infection affects more than half of the world’s population. It is generally acquired during childhood with no symptoms but has long- term clinical sequelae. This study estimated the prevalence of H. pylori infection amongst children in a rural environment in Africa. Methods We conducted a cross-sectional study over a...

Background Overweight and obesity are among the leading threats to global health because of their association with increased risk of morbidity and mortality. Much of the research on overweight and obesity among women largely generalize without due cognisance to differences in their reproductive history. This study explored differences in trends in...

Objectives: We analysed the extent of planned, mistimed and unwanted pregnancies and how they predict optimal use of prenatal (timing and number of antenatal) care services in 30 African countries. Methods: We pooled data from Demographic and Health Surveys conducted in 30 African countries between 2006 and 2015. We described the extent of misti...

Aim: To estimate the rate of IUFD/Stillbirths (SB) Study design: This is a retrospective review of delivery suite records from Jan 1 2013 to Dec 31 2014. Methods: Study was undertaken at the Cape Coast Teaching Hospital (CCTH) in the Central region of Ghana. All pregnant women who had their babies at the delivery suite of CCTH have their records h...

Violence against intimate partners threatens public health and social cohesion, and its prevalence could increase with an attitude of justification of such violence. The objective of this article was to use religion and ethnicity as proxies for culture to examine Ghanaian women's acceptance of being beaten. We employed descriptive and binary logist...

Introduction: Intravenous (IV) cannulation is the commonest invasive procedure among hospitalised patients. It is however associated with risks and complications that can have an adverse impact on the clinical outcome of the patient. Aim: To assess the incidence of and risk factors for development of phlebitis following peripheral IV cannulation at...

Purpose – Older males having sex with younger females is known to increase unsafe sex practices, exacerbated by power and economic imbalances between partners. The purpose of this paper is to examine transactional sexual relationships (i.e. long-term relationships constructed as “girlfriends not ‘prostitutes’” based on the exchange of gifts and oth...

To explore the effects of fee paying status on migration intentions of Ghanaian medical students. Cross sectional questionnaire based survey. All established Ghanaian medical schools with students in their clinical years. Fee-paying and non-fee-paying Ghanaian medical students in their clinical years. None. Migration intentions of Ghanaian medical...

Transactional sex has become one of the major sexual risk behaviours contributing to the spread of HIV in sub-Saharan Africa. The sexual and reproductive health implications are exacerbated when transactional sex occurs among adolescents, particularly those engaging in sexual intercourse for the first time. While transactional sex is commonly under...

Although vasectomy is one of the safest, simplest and inexpensive modern contraceptive methods, it remains relatively ‘invisible’ in Ghana. The consent of women may be a significant incentive in influencing their husbands to adopt vasectomy. This paper examined the perspectives of women on vasectomy as a contraceptive option. A cross-sectional surv...

Summary Casual heterosexual sex remains a significant contributor to HIV transmissions in Ghana. The study used data from the 2008 Ghana Demographic and Health Survey (GDHS) to assess the socio-demographic, economic and spatial factors influencing unprotected casual heterosexual sex among men and women. The results of the binary logistic regression...