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Article History

Received: 25 January 2024

Accepted: 21 August 2024

First Online: 27 August 2024

Declarations

:

: Ethical clearance was obtained from the Institutional Review Board of the University of Cape Coast (ethical clearance ID: UCCIRB/CHAS/2022/60). Our study protocol conformed to the provisions of the Declaration of Helsinki in 1995 (as revised in Brazil 2013) including confidentiality, risks and benefits assessments, consent to participate, and ensuring respect to participants. Written informed consent was taken from all participants during the questionnaire distribution before a participant was allowed to answer the questionnaire. Participants were fully informed of the study’s objectives, and only those who provided written informed consent were enrolled for the study. However, since the age of consent is 18 years in Ghana, participants who were < 18 years old could only participate via the manual printed questionnaire after they have provided an accent from their legal guardians or parents. The study’s participants were made aware that their information would be kept anonymized and that they had the option at any moment to revoke their consent and request for their data to be excluded from the study at any time point prior to publication of the data. The information gathered from the research was exclusively used for its intended purpose.

: Not applicable.

: The authors declare no competing interests.