Rebecca Addo

• Master of Public Health, Bsc Nursing
• PhD Student at University of Technology Sydney

Introduction Ghana’s reference case, developed to guide the conduct of economic evaluation as part of health technology assessment (HTA) guidelines, recommends the conduct of cost–utility analysis using outcomes such as quality-adjusted life years (QALYs). There is no national value set available for the Ghanaian population to be used in estimating...

Introduction Many cultures across the world have varying conceptions about death and dying. Perceptions about health states considered “worse than death” also vary based on sociocultural norms as well as health system capacity. We explore worse-than-death health states in Ghana as well as reasons for opting for death in those health states. Method...

Objective The aim of this study was to evaluate the benefit–cost of E-claims. A benefit–cost analysis was used to evaluate the efficiency of E-claims from the perspective of the providers and the purchaser. Design A benefit–cost analysis approach was taken for this economic evaluation. Furthermore, we estimated the incremental benefit–cost ratio (...

Objectives Most breast cancer cases in Ghana occur in premenopausal and perimenopausal (PPM) women. This study evaluated the cost-effectiveness of tamoxifen compared with no tamoxifen for the adjuvant treatment of hormone receptor–positive (HR+) early breast cancer (EBC) among PPM Ghanaian women. Methods A Markov model was constructed to synthesiz...

Introduction Primary family caregivers provide substantial support in the management of lymphoma, potentially affecting their quality of life and increasing household health care costs. Our aim was thus to determine the economic costs and quality of life of primary caregivers of children with lymphoma. Methods This cross-sectional study involved p...

Objectives: Ghana is in the process of formally introducing health technology assessment (HTA) for health decision making. Similar to other low- and middle-income countries, evidence suggests that the lack of data and human capacity is a major barrier to the conduct and use of HTA. This study assessed the current human and data capacity available...

Although health technology assessment (HTA) is intended to provide policymakers with objective information, the likelihood that a health decision-maker (HDM) will use this information is associated with their knowledge, role and perception of the HTA process. In Ghana, policymakers are working towards formalising the use of HTA, but HDM knowledge o...

Background Over the past two decades, the focus of mental health care has shifted from institutionalisation to community-based programs and short hospital stays. This change means that there is an increased role for caregivers, mostly family members, in managing persons with mental illness. Although there is evidence to support the benefits of dein...

PRISMA 2009 checklist. (DOC)

Introduction In recent years, unlike developing countries, developed countries have seen an increase in the survival of women diagnosed with breast cancer and this has been attributed to early detection through screening and best treatments such as adjuvant systemic therapies with medications like Tamoxifen. The burden of breast cancer in Africa, i...

Introduction Since the inception of the Ghana National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), it has been pursuing a number of provider payment mechanisms that could not only control the continuous escalating costs of claims payout, but also facilitate the claims processing time. In lieu of this, electronic processing of claims (E-claims) was introduced i...

Learning to ‘become doctor’ requires PhD candidates to undertake progressive public displays – material and social – of knowledge. Knowledge in doctoral pedagogy is primarily realised textually, with speaking and writing remaining as the primary assessment rubrics of progress and of the qualification. Participating textually begins, in a public sen...

Background: Over the past two decades, mental health care has shifted from institutionalisation to community-based programs and short hospital stays (for the seriously ill and acute patients). This change means that caregivers who are family members of these patients assume the role of daily caregiving instead of mental health professionals. As muc...

INTRODUCTION In recent years, the Ghana health system has been faced with the challenge of financial sustainability. New ways of making decisions in a cost-effective manner that ensure efficient use of available resources is being explored. Consequently, Ghana has been pursuing the formal introduction of Health Technology Assessment (HTA) for decis...

INTRODUCTION Malaria remains the number one cause of morbidity and mortality in Ghana. Since 1961, several malaria control strategies have been adopted, some of which were discontinued due to funding. In spite of the numerous malaria control strategies in place, its prevalence continues to rise. Priority setting using economic evidence has been pro...

Background: Leadership and productivity in nursing and midwifery have become topical issues for discussion. This is possibly due to nurses constituting the largest group of the healthcare workforce. Nurses and midwives have been held accountable for low productivity and inappropriate leadership in the past. However, there has been limited consensu...

In Ghana, the prevalence of mental illness is about 13% and most patients are seen on out-patient basis. The economic burden of mental health care to patients and their families is, largely, unknown. The aim of this study was to estimate the direct and indirect costs of mental illness to patients and their families and also to describe the intangib...