DOI: 10.36347/sjebm.2015.v02i06.005

Pages: 605-610

The challenge of health in a country does not lie mainly with poor sanitation and other factors, but also lies with adverse climate change. The notion that climate change generally increases human diseases has garnered considerable public attention, but remains controversial and seems inconsistent with other people in most part of Ghana. The study aimed at analyzing the perceptions of the people of the Kwahu South District on climate change and healthrelated issues in their communities. This is also to assess the communities’ adaptation strategies to climate change and health-related issues. One twenty (120) household partially pre-coded questionnaire were administered in three communities namely Kwahu Praso Nos. 1 and 2 and Kwahu Besease. A cluster and quota sampling techniques were used to aggregate the three communities before probability simple random sampling technique was used to select the respondents from each community. There was a low level of awareness about climate change and health. Again, knowledge and capacity at local level to understand and adapt climate change-related diseases is low. The common diseases in the community associated with climate change were malaria, heat stress diseases such as skin rashes and respiratory infections. Coping strategies and adaptation mechanism were limited, due to their low knowledge on climate change and health related diseases. It is important for awareness creation on climate change and health issues by the District Health Directorate.