Prevalence of Anemia, Overweight/Obesity, and Undiagnosed Hypertension and Diabetes among Residents of Selected Communities in Ghana

The increasing numbers of lifestyle related chronic diseases in developing countries call for awareness, early detection, and effective management. The objective of this paper is to report the prevalence of undiagnosed hypertension, diabetes, overweight/obesity, and anemia among residents of selected communities in Ghana. The data comes from a community screening conducted in Ghana as part of the University of Georgia Summer Service Learning Program. Descriptive statistics were used to summarize the data while chi-square and independent t-test compared groups. A total of 976 participants (37.9% males and 62.1% females), 18 years and older, were screened. Mean age was 46.25 ± 17.14 years, BMI was 25.44 ± 5.26 kgm-2, and hemoglobin was 12.04 ± 2.22 g/dL. 3.1% and 12.6% reported existing diagnosis for diabetes and hypertension, respectively. Almost half (47.8%) were overweight/obese; 27.0% were hypertensive while 34.0% had diabetes. Also, 28.8% males compared to 37.8% females had diabetes (P = 0.015), while 28.2% males compared to 26.2% females were hypertensive (P = 0.635). There were differences in BMI (P < 0.0001), anemia (P = 0.007), and undiagnosed diabetes (P < 0.0001) and hypertension (P < 0.0001) by community (Takoradi versus Cape Coast) where the screening took place. Findings from the screening exercise call for improved public health education with a focus on lifestyle habits and health seeking behaviors among Ghanaians.