Ghana will from June this year conduct a nationwide Non-Communicable Disease (NCD) risk factor Assessment Survey (STEPS) to establish a baseline on the prevalence of NCDs across the country.

The WHO-STEPS survey is expected to provide information, which will better guide planning, monitoring, and evaluation efforts at NCD prevention.

It will be conducted in all 16 regions with a sample size of 5775 in 385 enumeration areas.

Mr Baffour Awuah, Director, Technical Coordination, Ministry of Health (MoH), who was speaking at the opening of a five-day workshop for data collectors of the STEP survey in Ghana, said the workshop would offer training on best ways to derive information on the risk factors of NCDs among the public.

It was organised by the World Health Organization (WHO), Ghana Health Service (GHS) and the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) with funding from the United Kingdom Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (UK-FCDO).

Mr Awuah said the workshop would develop strategies and interventions on how to measure and reduce the severity of the risk factors such as unhealthy lifestyle, tobacco use, harmful use of alcohol, and physical inactivity associated with Non-Communicable Diseases.

He said unhealthy lifestyles such as tobacco use, and alcohol consumption were prevalent within the middle belt of Ghana and contributed significantly to the prevalence of NCDs.

The Chief Director stated that the lack of access to healthcare services and inadequate public health interventions had exacerbated the burden of NCDs in the middle belt and urged the public to check their health status regularly.

Dr Patrick Kuma-Aboagye, Director General, Ghana Health Service (GHS), said the survey would provide crucial information to guide decision making to better address NCDs risk factors.

It would also provide an opportunity to better control NCDs as the country strived to achieve Universal Health Coverage (UHC).

‘The Ghana Health Service as the lead public health agency in Ghana considers the implementation of the WHO STEPS Survey as a critical tool to implementing our mandate,’ he said.

The WHO Ghana Team Lead, Communicable and Non-communicable Disease (UCN), said NCDs had changed the world over the last 20 years as it had become the leading cause of death in most countries, resulting in 200 million premature deaths among people aged between 30 to 70 years in developing countries.

She said Africa had a double tragedy as communicable and non-communicable diseases were causing deaths at a high rate.

She explained that the survey would involve three stages of data collection.

The first will be data collection on demographics and housing information, diet, physical activity, tobacco use, alcohol consumption, history of blood pressure, diabetes, history of total cholesterol, cardiovascular disease, lifestyle advice, breast cancer screening of women, mental and oral health.

During the second stage, selected household members will undergo physical measurements such as pulse rate, weight, height, waist and hips circumference.

For the last stage, onsite blood samples would be taken to test for total cholesterol, high density lipoprotein, and fasting blood sugar.

Urine samples would also be taken and transported to a laboratory to test for sodium and creatine levels.

Source: Ghana News Agency