The country has recorded rising levels of stroke cases over the past three years, with numbers climbing into the thousands per 100,000 members of the population.
A Public Health Physician and Health Systems Researcher at the Ministry of Health (MoH), Dr Mavis Sakyi, who disclosed this in Accra on Monday, August 24, said almost 48 per cent of stroke cases were in men aged 30 to 49, a trend she described as "quite alarming."
Speaking at a national stakeholder consultation on Food Is Medicine (FIM) in Accra, she said the added challenge was that these cases tended to present in much worse forms, at stages technically described as "haemorrhagic strokes," which usually carry a poor prognosis.
Dr Sakyi, who works in the Public Health and Health Promotion Unit of the Technical Coordination Directorate of MoH, gave a breakdown of annual reported cases: 24,840 in 2023, equivalent to 77.4 per 100,000 population; 26,758 cases, or 81.1 per 100,000 people, in 2024; and 29,483 cases, or 87.36 per 100,000 population, in 2025.
She said evidence showed a large proportion of patients with hypertension and diabetes were not managing their conditions well, which was leading to the complication of stroke. "It could be that they are not getting their medication or they are getting it but they are not taking it," she said.
Dr Sakyi said diet was an important part of managing those conditions, which fall under Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs). "This is why we have called the stakeholder meeting. We need to improve our diets, reduce unhealthy diets and help bring down the Non-Communicable Diseases burden," she said.
She named the Ashanti, Greater Accra, Volta and Oti regions as having the highest proportion of stroke cases, with Oforikrom, Korle Klottey, Bekwai, Ayawaso West and Keta the leading districts.
The stakeholder consultation was organised by the MoH in collaboration with the School of Public Health at the University of Ghana to discuss how food and nutrition interventions can be integrated into the country's healthcare programmes. FIM refers to a spectrum of food-based interventions integrated into healthcare for people with specific health conditions, distinguished from general nutrition education by the fact that eligibility, food content and intensity are clinically informed and linked to a care plan. Countries that have piloted and scaled FIM have shown meaningful improvements in disease management, patient outcomes and, in some cases, reduced downstream healthcare costs. The meeting was expected to produce a context-appropriate understanding of FIM for Ghana, agreement on suitable models and research ideas to test, and clearer institutional rules and governance arrangements for a platform stakeholders hope to establish in the country.
Providing figures from the Ghana Health Service (GHS), Dr Sakyi said hypertension and diabetes cases were similarly high and often translated into strokes when patients developed complications. For hypertension, she said 549,527 cases were reported in 2023, equivalent to 1,711.6 per 100,000 population, rising to 577,374 cases, or 1,710.79 per 100,000, in 2025. Diabetes mellitus recorded 181,769 cases in 2023, equivalent to 566.2 per 100,000 population, compared with 201,022 cases, or 595.64 per 100,000, in 2025.
Dr Sakyi explained that stroke cases were high among men partly because they typically visited hospitals less often than women. She said women had peculiar factors, such as pregnancy, that increased the frequency of their hospital visits and, in turn, their chances of being screened.
For hypertension, the hotspot districts were Ayawaso West in Accra, Atwima Nwabiagya and Obuasi East in the Ashanti Region, Korle Klottey in Accra, and New Juaben in the Ashanti Region, in that order. For diabetes, Ayawaso West topped the chart, followed by Obuasi East, Kwahu West and Old Tafo.
The Director of Allied Health at MoH, Dr Ignatius Awinibuno, said poor nutrition, limited access to affordable healthy food choices, and food environments that push people toward unhealthy choices were contributing to the country's NCD burden. "Nutrition and food provision services remain insufficiently integrated into our clinical pathways. Something must be deliberately done about it, and I think this is what the FIM seeks to address. Food is Medicine approaches, such as produce prescriptions, medically tailored groceries and meals delivered alongside structured nutrition assessment, counselling, and clinical follow-up, are very important towards achieving our goals," he said.
The Vice-Chairman of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Health, Dr Sebastian Sandaare, said Parliament recognises NCDs as no longer a secondary health concern but a present national emergency taking lives prematurely, impoverishing households, reducing productivity and placing growing pressure on the health system. Describing FIM as timely, he said it connects prevention with treatment, clinical care with the food system, and professional advice with practical access to appropriate food.
The Head of the Department of Population, Family and Reproductive Health at the School of Public Health, Prof Amos Laar, said the meeting was, among other things, expected to determine how clinically appropriate food and nutrition services could become a critical component of healthcare delivery and food systems performance in Ghana.
