News
Time poverty, nutrition crisis: How working hours are reshaping diets of families
In many Ghanaian households today, the workday no longer ends at 5pm. In busy Ghanaian cities such as Accra and Kumasi, parents experience traffic-clogged streets. Traders and market women rise before dawn, health workers are on rotating shifts, and informal-sector workers juggle multiple jobs, thus, long work hours have become the norm rather than the exception. While these extended hours may help to keep some families financially afloat, they are also quietly changing dietary patterns in ways that threaten the health of both parents and their children.
Ghana cannot lecture families into healthy eating while work and commuting steal the time needed to cook, we must treat time poverty as a nutrition risk and design policy around it. A recent study published in the Journal of Development Effectiveness confirms what many Ghanaian parents already feel that when time is scarce, nutrition is the first sacrifice. Also, in the Greater Accra Region, researchers from Feminist Economics have highlighted that long working hours and long commutes are pushing families especially women, away from traditional, nutritious diets toward convenience foods that are cheap, fast, and unhealthy. This shift is contributing to under nutrition in children and the rising rate overweight, obesity, and diet-related chronic diseases among adults and adolescents.
Parents who work long hours have little time available to themselves. Meal planning, food preparation, and shared family meals may be reduced at home due to exhaustion. As a result, households increasingly rely on ultra-processed foods, fried foods, sugary beverages, and refined carbohydrates. These foods are energy-dense but nutrient-poor, lacking essential micronutrients such as iron, zinc, vitamin A, and folic acid, nutrients critical for child growth and cognitive development.
Children are especially vulnerable. When parents are time constrained, children’s diets are shaped by caregivers, older siblings, or their own food choices. Breakfast may be skipped entirely, lunch money may often be spent on pastries, sweetened drinks, instant noodles, or fried snacks sold near schools and dinner, when it happens, may be eaten late at night and consist of leftovers or fast food. Over time, these patterns increase the risk of stunting, micronutrient deficiencies, and obesity.
For parents themselves, the health consequences are equally troubling. Long work hours are associated with irregular eating patterns and heavy reliance on fast foods. Combined with physical inactivity and chronic stress, these dietary habits increase the risk of hypertension, type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases and conditions that are already rising rapidly in Ghana.
Some may argue that the issue is not working hours but personal responsibility. After all, healthy Ghanaian foods such as “kontomire” stew, beans, millet porridge, vegetables, fruits, still exist and are still popular diets. But this argument overlooks structural reality. A parent who spends three hours commuting and ten hours working has limited capacity to shop daily and cook from scratch. In this context, food choices are shaped less by preference and more by time constraints, labour conditions, and urban design.
Others may point out that long working hours are unavoidable in a developing economy, particularly in the informal sector where social protections are weak. That may be true, but accepting long hours as inevitable does not mean ignoring their health consequences. Public health policy must adapt to these realities rather than pretend they do not exist.
So what then must be done? Addressing this issue requires coordinated action across sectors. The Ministry of Health and Ghana Health Service should recognize time poverty as a determinant of diet and promote workplace nutrition standards, including protected meal breaks. Employers, education authorities, and local assemblies must strengthen healthy food environments in workplaces and schools while incentivizing vendors to provide more nutritious options. Transport and urban planning authorities should also reduce commuting time, as time savings can support healthier household dietary practices.
Ghana cannot afford to treat dietary patterns as a purely private matter. When parents’ long work hours distort what families eat, the consequences ripple across generations, affecting child growth, adult productivity, and the future burden on the health system. If we are serious about improving nutrition and health, we must look beyond the plate and confront the working conditions that shape what ends up on it. The health of Ghana’s parents and children depends on it.
By Grace Fia
A pastor and two others, who allegedly attempted to bury a five-month-old baby alive at a refuse dump at Abofrem near Bibiani in the Western North Region, have been remanded into lawful custody by the Bibiani District Court.
The accused are Richmond Frimpong, also known as Prophet, 36, a pastor; Beatrice Agyapongmaa, 23, a hairdresser and mother of the baby; and Emmanuel Appiah.
An accomplice, Donkor, a 53-year-old farmer, is at large.
Frimpong and Agyapongmaa have been charged with conspiracy to commit crime, to wit attempted murder. Frimpong faces an additional charge of attempted murder.
Appiah and Donkor have been charged with abetment of crime, to wit attempted murder.
The court, presided over by Mr Lord Delvin Essandoh, did not take their pleas and refused a bail application by counsel for the accused persons.
Chief Inspector B.O. Agyemang, leading the prosecution, told the court that the baby, currently in the custody of Agyapongmaa’s grandmother, remained at risk and prayed the court to place the child in a care home.
The court, in the interest of justice and the welfare of the child, ordered the Social Welfare Office to conduct a social enquiry and submit a report within five days.
The case has been adjourned to May 5, 2026.
Prosecution said the complainant, Winfred Agbah, a 29-year-old security guard and Unit Committee Member at Abofrem, received information on April 10, at about 22:00 hours that some persons were attempting to secretly bury a child at a refuse dump.
He proceeded to the scene and allegedly found Frimpong, Appiah and Donkor preparing to bury the baby, who was wrapped in cloth and being held by Appiah.
When questioned, the three allegedly claimed the child was dead. However, after inspecting the baby, the complainant realised the child was alive.
Prosecution said Frimpong allegedly tried to persuade the complainant to allow them to proceed, but he refused and took the suspects to the Chief of Abofrem.
Investigations revealed that Agyapongmaa is the biological mother of the baby, whose neck had reportedly been unstable since birth. In search of a remedy, she was directed to Frimpong.
Prosecution said Frimpong told Agyapongmaa that the child had been described as “Nsuoba” and required spiritual intervention.
He allegedly asked her to provide items including eggs, schnapps, powder, incense, a fowl and a cannonball stone for rituals.
After the rituals, Frimpong allegedly assured her the baby would die soon and asked her to return to Kumasi.
On April 9, 2026, Agyapongmaa reportedly returned to inform him that the baby was still alive. Prosecution said they then agreed that euthanasia (mercy killing) was the best option.
Frimpong allegedly asked her to leave the child in his room to complete the process and later declared the baby dead.
Appiah, who had visited Frimpong, allegedly assisted in confirming the supposed death.
The prosecution said Frimpong, Appiah and Donkor later took the baby to the refuse dump, where Donkor dug a grave and they attempted to bury the child before the complainant intervened and rescued the baby.
The matter was reported to the Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit at Bibiani, leading to the arrest of the accused persons.
Prosecution said the suspects admitted the offence in their caution statements and that police were preparing a duplicate docket for the Attorney-General’s Department for advice. –GNA
The sharp increase in malaria cases among children under five years in the Amansie West District is beginning to raise concerns among health workers in the area.
According to health officials, malaria cases generally in the district has shot up with data revealing more than 38,000 cases at the Out-patient Departments (OPD) in 2025.
This marks over 2,000 increase over the 2024 figure of 36,000.
But worryingly, it is the increase among infants that is beginning to occupy the attention of the health workers in the district.
According to the data available, malaria cases among the kids have jumped from the 8,000 recorded in 2024 to 10,000 in 2025, marking a 25 per cent increase.
That was linked directly to abandoned pits left by illegal mining activities, commonly known as ‘galamsey.’
The Amansie West District Director of Health Services, Mr Bernard Badu Bediako, stated in an interview that these abandoned pits have become high-volume mosquito breeding grounds across the district.
Commemorating the occasion of the 2026 World Malaria Day, Mr Bediako called for a united front to eliminate the disease from the district.
The problem, he emphsasised, was also compounded by the situation where both children and adults don’t complete the course of their malaria treatment.
Consequently, he urged residents of the district to complete the full course of anti-malaria medication rather than abandon treatment after beginning to feel well, a practice he identified as a key driver of persistent infection.
He also strongly encouraged the consistent use of long-lasting insecticide-treated nets, acknowledging complaints from some residents about discomfort but stressed that “sleeping under treated nets remained far safer than the risk of severe malaria.”
Mr Badu commended the management of Asanko Gold for supporting the fight against malaria, and announced that public education had been intensified across communities, with health authorities now shifting emphasis from malaria control to outright elimination.
Marking this year’s commemoration, Asanko Gold Ghana Limited organised a free health screening exercise for residents of Manso Abore and surrounding communities, covering malaria testing, blood pressure and blood sugar checks, and general medical consultations.
The company also distributed over 2,000 insecticide-treated mosquito nets to Senior High School students within the catchment area.
The company’s General Manager, Justice Fenteng, in a speech read on his behalf, said Asanko Gold’s commitment extended well beyond commemorative activities, pointing to ongoing investments in healthcare infrastructure, including the construction of Community-based Health Planning and Services (CHPS) compounds at Tetrem and Krofrom to bring essential medical services closer to rural communities.
“These are long-term investments aimed at improving access to healthcare and strengthening our communities,” Fenteng stated.
He called on residents of Manso and its environs to regularly use mosquito nets, maintain clean surroundings, seek early testing, and take preventive measures seriously, stressing that eliminating malaria required collective action beginning from individual homes.
From Kingsley E. Hope, Kumasi
