Poor mental health of livestock farmers in Africa: a mixed methods case study from Ghana
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Date
2020-06-01
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
BMC Public Health
Abstract
Background: Agriculture represents the mainstay of African economies and livestock products are essential to the
human population’s nutritional needs. However, in many developing countries, including Ghana, livestock production
fails to meet demand due to population growth and negative effects of climate change. One of the challenges to
production is livestock loss affecting farmers. However, despite stressful events experienced, livestock farmers’ mental
health is poorly documented. This study aims to identify the root causes of livestock losses and their influence on
pastoralists’ mental health.
Methods: We conducted a mixed methods study in two districts in the Northern and Southern Belts of
Ghana. Using the Depression Anxiety and Stress Scale–21 and guided interviews, we collected quantitative
and qualitative data from 287 livestock farmers and 24 key-informants respectively. Mental health scores were
categorized using standard guidelines. We evaluated the factors that explained variations in mental wellbeing
using general linear models (α = 0.05).
Results: About 85% (240/287) of the livestock farmers lost cattle within 1 year. Of these, 91% lost cattle to
animal diseases, 50% to theft and 27% to pasture shortages. Qualitative findings reveal that due to poor
access to veterinary services, farmers treat livestock diseases themselves with drugs from unregulated sources
and often sell diseased cows for meat to recover losses. Findings showed that 60% of livestock farmers had
poor mental health. Of those, 72% were depressed, 66% anxious and 59% stressed. Mental wellbeing was
negatively associated with the number of adverse events experienced, proportion of livestock lost to most of
the major loss factors, emotional attachment to livestock and self-reported physical illnesses in farmers, but
positively associated with increasing herd size [F (8,278) = 14.18, p < 0.001, R2 = 0.29].Conclusions: Livestock diseases are the leading cause of losses to livestock farmers, whose mental wellbeing
is negatively affected by these losses. Although an adaptive strategy by farmers to compensate for poor
veterinary services, the arbitrary use of veterinary drugs and sale of diseased cattle pose health risks to the
public. Further research to evaluate the performance of veterinary services in Ghana, mental health problems
and risk to human health due to potential high-risk meat entering the food chain, is needed.
Description
Research Article
Keywords
Livestock loss, Mental health, Veterinary, Food safety, Food security, Ghana
Citation
Nuvey, F.S., Kreppel, K., Nortey, P.A. et al. Poor mental health of livestock farmers in Africa: a mixed methods case study from Ghana. BMC Public Health 20, 825 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-020-08949-2