Perceived environmental risks and hazards in urban poor communities and associated health outcomes : An Ecohealth study of the Odawna community in Accra, Ghana

Background: Environmental risks and hazards are a major contributor to the disease burden in Africa and globally. This is particularly a growing concern in urban poor communities of the global south due to rapid urbanization. Studies have shown that environmental risks and hazards threaten human health and wellbeing. The urgent need to understand the immense interdependencies that exist between humans and both biotic and abiotic environments and, consequent impact on human and planetary health has led to new approaches such as One Health and Ecohealth. Few studies have also been done to investigate the relationship between lay people’s perception of environmental risks and experienced health outcomes.Objectives: The study aimed to (1) describe household perception of environmental risks and experienced health outcomes, (2) examine the association between perceived environmental risks and health outcomes and (3) investigate the relationship between household characteristics, perceived environmental risks and experienced health outcomes.Methods: A cross-sectional study of 152 households in the Odawna community using the Ecohealth approach developed and promoted by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC). The second and third objectives were analyzed using Chi-square correlation and binary regression respectively.Results: Households perceived floods, air pollution, water pollution and waste accumulation as the main environmental risks facing the community. At the same time, most of the households had experienced sanitation-related illnesses while a smaller proportion had experienced airway illnesses and waterborne diseases. The results also indicate that perceived floods, air pollution and, sex of the household head were significant predictors of household experience of sanitation-related illnesses.Conclusion: we recommend inclusive approaches such as Ecohealth to addressing health and environment issues in urban poor communities and, the need to examine risk perception at the local level among vulnerable communities.