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Article History

Received: 20 December 2017

Accepted: 1 May 2018

First Online: 10 May 2018

Ethics approval and consent to participate

: Ethical Clearance was obtained from the Institutional Review Board (IRB) of the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research with reference number NMIMR-IRB CPN 102/11–12. Additional permissions were obtained from the Ghana Education Service (both from Director General’s department and the Ga-East Municipal Director of Education) and heads of selected schools before any contact was made with pupils. Consent forms explaining study objectives, procedure, confidentiality, benefits and voluntary nature of study were given to pupils to take home to seek parental approval. Each pupil also signed an assent form before participation after receiving parental consent. This method of obtaining parental consent for child’s participation was approved by the ethics board. All field tools had unique Identification numbers which were used on forms and during data entry. Thus, responses cannot be linked to participating individuals in the study.

: The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

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