Doctors to prescribe exercise medicine in Ghana.

Story: George Sydney Abugri

About 50 medical doctors, pharmacists and seniour nurses from public and private hospitals and clinics will converge in Tema tomorrow, January 10 for an intensive seminar designed to equip them with the requisite knowledge for prescribing adequate doses of exercise medicine for their patients.

The seminar for the physicians and paramedical staff will herald the commencement in the next few weeks, of academic and practical training programmes at the newly established School of Exercise Medicine, Sports and Wellness in Tema.

The School of Exercise Medicine, Sports and Wellness which is one of the departments of the Narh Bita College of Nursing, is the first educational institution of its kind in Africa.

The mission of the school is to train health professionals who will administer appropriate dosages of physical exercise for the treatment, prevention and management of diseases.

To complement the efforts of the new school and raise critical public awareness of the concept of physical exercise as a form of medical therapy, the Ministry of Health is collaborating with the school to integrate exercise medicine into medical care in Ghana.

“While the benefits of physical exercise are well known to physicians, physicians do not always have the necessary training to counsel their patients on how to incorporate physical exercise into their daily routines” the Medical Director of the Narh-Bita Hospital in Tema, Dr. Edward Narh explains.

Yet bout 60 per cent of adult deaths in Ghana are attributable to heart-related diseases resulting from sedentary life styles and physical inactivity.

“Many doctors in asking questions intended to help them diagnose their patients’ ailments rarely ask them questions about their lifestyles and especially, the regularity of their engagement in physical exercise”, Dr. Narh notes

Physical training expert and head of the School of Exercise Medicine, Sports and Wellness, Professor Reginald Ocansey says the seminar is therefore to equip physicians with the knowledge they need to prescribe exercise to patients “in a manner similar to prescribing medication.”

The January 10 seminar on the prescription of exercise medicine is designed to equip doctors with the necessary tools, strategies and techniques needed to ensure that their patients understand the importance of physical activity and are given prescriptions of exercise based on their individual health needs, taking into account, such factors as age, gender and medical condition.

Through a course of questions posed to patients, physicians can determine the appropriate dosage of exercise medicine to prescribe. Under-exercising has very little or no health and fitness benefits and over exercising can be injurious to health.

Professor Ocansey lists the United States, the United Kingdom, South Africa, Singapore and Japan among countries whose governments have developed appropriate guidelines for the promotion of physical activities and dietary practices to ensure healthy national populations.

He says while considerable progress has been made in the fight against communicable diseases in Ghana, the country is faced with an increasing incidence of non-communicable diseases among the population.

It is in recognition of the importance of healthy lifestyle choices as tools for preventing and managing avoidable diseases, that the Ministry of Health made a paradigm shift in policy from curative care to preventative health care since 2005, Professor Ocansey says.

The establishment of the School of Exercise Medicine, Sports and Wellness in Ghana, he adds, is therefore an “actualization” of the common vision of the Ghana’s Ministry of Health and the global Exercise is Medicine Movement {EIM}.

The concept of exercise medicine has probably always existed but the first ever world congress on exercise medicine was held in the United States in June 2010 under the auspices of the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM).

Ghana’s Regenerative Health and Nutrition Program launched by the Ministry of Health in 2005 received quite a boost and attracted international support following the first global congress on exercise medicine.

The first global congress ended with the slogan “Exercise is Medicine.” The slogan was subsequently adopted as the title of a global program to popularize exercise medicine world wide.

A communiqué issued at the end of the first congress urged physicians and other health care providers and professionals worldwide to include exercise when designing treatment plans for patients.

A national organization, the Ghana Physical Education and Sport Think Tank headed by Professor Ocansey, has been established to help Ghana keep active pace with the global “Exercise is Medicine” campaign. The organization held the first national forum on exercise medicine in June, 2011.

It is probably worthy of note, that apart from South Africa, Ghana was the only other African country which sent a delegation to the second world congress on exercise medicine held in Denver, Colorado, USA in 2011.

Both congresses have served to re-enforce an urgent global message: “Exercise and physical activity are important to health and the prevention and treatment of many chronic diseases and much more should be done to address the critical issues of physical activity and exercise in all health care settings.”

The School of Exercise Medicine, Sports and Wellness could make a positive impact on the quality of the football game in Ghana: The School has sent a proposal to the Ghana Football Association for possible collaboration between the GFA and the school in providing continuing professional development opportunities for coaches, referees, team physicians and other key players in football.

The purpose of the proposal, Professor Ocansey says, is twofold. “The first is to facilitate a mutually workable relationship between the GFA and the school, in order to respond to pertinent needs in football development and sports development in the country.

The second is to work jointly with the GFA to upgrade the skills, knowledge, attitudes and dispositions of the country’s football club masseurs and fitness trainers, while promoting the quality training of coaches and referees”, Professor Ocansey had explained.

Among the flurry of activities which will herald the opening of the school, will be the inauguration this week, of the Exercise Medicine Association of Ghana and the commissioning of an exercise medical clinic staffed by trained clinical exercise practitioners, who will assist physicians in the assessment of patients’ exercise needs and the prescription of exercise medicine. Email: georgeabu@hotmail.com Website: www.sydneyabugi.com