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Article History

Accepted: 27 November 2024

First Online: 14 December 2024

Declarations

:

: The authors declare no competing interests.

: Ethical approval was sought and obtained from the Committee for Human Research, Publications and Ethics (CHRPE) of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) and the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH). Informed consent and assent were sought and documented for all participants selected for the study. The content of the consent forms was translated into the local dialect (Twi) for guardians who did not speak English in the presence of a witness who had read and understood the content and signed accordingly as a witness. The study was conducted according to the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards, with respect for the principles of informed consent, the autonomy of participants, and their right to withdraw at any time fully always respected.

: During the preparation of this work the authors used chatGPT in limited paragraphs in the discussion section to revise the wording and style of the structure of the paragraphs, to reduce the word count. The tool was not used to generate any original text but was only used to revise texts originally written by the authors, for improved parsimony of words and enhanced readability. After using this tool/service, the authors reviewed and edited the content as needed and take full responsibility for the content of the publication.