Luis Tidan, an official of the Ghana Health Service in the Bolgatanga Municipality, has urged members of the public to regularly visit health facilities to have basic checks done to ensure their well-being.
His call for regular checkups follows a week-long exercise to screen people in Vea and Soe-Yipaala for various conditions with the support of the Christ’s Church Ministries, Real Life Ministries, and the Bolgatanga Municipal Health Directorate.
Among the various conditions, issues of Blood Pressure are recorded more among the aged, and more worrying is the prevalence of BP among the youth.
According to the Ghana Demographic Health Survey in 2014, Hypertension has a prevalence of 13% among adults with 40% on treatment and only 23.8% of the cases being under control. High Blood Pressure is when the pressure in one’s blood vessels is too high. It is said to be common but can be fatal if not checked early and managed.
It is on this score that Mr. Tidan, who led a team of medical professionals to conduct a health screening in Vea and the Soe-Yipaala Electoral communities, is urging members of the public to take their health seriously and go for frequent checkups.
He attributed the increasing blood pressure issues among the youth to the lack of exercise as he called for a change in attitude towards personal healthcare.
“With the aged, research has shown that we are prone to getting hypertension as we grow older, and even with the youth, most of us are roaming with potbellies. Not much exercise amongst us and we are recording very high cases of hypertension among even the youth. For these cases, get yourself checked. If you can, every week, get yourself checked, every month, get yourself checked. Weight check and management is important and when it comes to diet, the salt and fatty intake should be reduced and exercise is a major part of it.” Mr. Tindan narrated.
He added that many men have poor health-seeking habits and only go to hospital when the condition becomes critical.
“We live in a community where healthcare attitudes or behaviors of our people especially amongst men are not so encouraging. If a man is ill, a lot of the time, he can’t walk when he gets to the hospital,” he observed.
