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Article History

Received: 5 June 2023

Accepted: 9 October 2023

First Online: 23 October 2023

Declarations

:

: All procedures performed in this study involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. For procedural ethics, the General Research Ethics Board at Queen’s University (GREB<b>)</b>, Kingston, Canada (Ref: GGEOPL-344-22<b>)</b> and the Committee on Human Research Publication and Ethics (CHRPE), School of Medical Sciences, College of Health Sciences, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana <b>(</b>Ref: CHRPE/AP/182/22) approved the study protocol. Further, the Ashanti Regional Health Directorate under Ghana Health Service further gave approval to the study site (Ref: GHS/ASH/RES/V.2) for the data collection exercise to begin. Verbal and informed written consent was sought from the participants. The procedure for obtaining verbal informed consent was approved by the ethics committee/institutional review board. We further confirm that for illiterate participants, informed consent to participate in the study was obtained from their legal guardians. Participants were assured of strict confidentiality and anonymity of the data they provided. The participation of the respondents in the study was also voluntary.

: The datasets used and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

: Not applicable.

: Williams Agyemang-Duah is a section Editor, Archives of Public Health, BMC. Mark W Rosenberg declares no conflict of interests.