Regional Institute for Population Studies, University of Ghana, P,O, Box LG 96, Legon, Accra, Ghana.
Global Health. 2011 Apr 7;7:7. doi: 10.1186/1744-8603-7-7.
Many countries have adopted health policies that are targeted at reducing the risk factors for chronic non-communicable diseases. These policies promote a healthy population by encouraging people to adopt healthy lifestyle behaviours. This paper examines healthy lifestyle behaviour among Ghanaian adults by comparing behaviours before and after the introduction of a national health policy. The paper also explores the socio-economic and demographic factors associated with healthy lifestyle behaviour.
Descriptive, bivariate and multivariate regression techniques were employed on two nationally representative surveys (2003 World Health Survey (Ghana) and 2008 Ghana Demographic and Health Survey) to arrive at the results.
While the prevalence of some negative lifestyle behaviours like smoking has reduced others like alcohol consumption has increased. Relatively fewer people adhered to consuming the recommended amount of fruit and vegetable servings per day in 2008 compared to 2003. While more females (7.0%) exhibited healthier lifestyles, more males (9.0%) exhibited risky lifestyle behaviours after the introduction of the policy.
The improvement in healthy lifestyle behaviours among female adult Ghanaians will help promote healthy living and potentially lead to a reduction in the prevalence of obesity among Ghanaian women. The increase in risky lifestyle behaviour among adult male Ghanaians even after the introduction of the health policy could lead to an increase in the risk of non-communicable diseases among men and the resultant burden of disease on them and their families will push more people into poverty.
许多国家都采取了针对减少慢性非传染性疾病风险因素的卫生政策。这些政策通过鼓励人们采取健康的生活方式行为，来促进健康人群。本文通过比较国家卫生政策出台前后加纳成年人的健康生活方式行为，来研究加纳成年人的健康生活方式行为。本文还探讨了与健康生活方式行为相关的社会经济和人口统计学因素。
采用描述性、双变量和多变量回归技术对两次全国代表性调查（2003 年世界卫生调查（加纳）和 2008 年加纳人口和健康调查）进行了分析，得出了结果。
虽然一些负面生活方式行为（如吸烟）的流行率有所下降，但其他行为（如饮酒）的流行率却有所上升。与 2003 年相比，2008 年相对较少的人每天摄入推荐量的水果和蔬菜。虽然更多的女性（7.0%）表现出更健康的生活方式，但政策出台后，更多的男性（9.0%）表现出危险的生活方式行为。
加纳成年女性健康生活方式行为的改善将有助于促进健康生活，并可能导致加纳女性肥胖率的降低。即使在卫生政策出台后，加纳成年男性危险生活方式行为的增加也可能导致男性中非传染性疾病风险的增加，以及由此给他们及其家庭带来的疾病负担，这将使更多的人陷入贫困。
