Infant and child health: Evidence from 2003 Ghana demographic and health survey
| dc.contributor.author | Tawiah, E.O. | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2019-05-14T09:58:51Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2019-05-14T09:58:51Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2007 | |
| dc.description.abstract | 3 Chapter Infant and Child Health: Evidence from 2003 Ghana Demographic and Health Survey Emmanuel O. Tawiah Introduction The unacceptably high levels of infant, child and under-five mortality in Ghana result in excessive and sheer waste of human lives. The recent increase in the under-five mortality rate from 107.6 per 1,000 live births during 1994-1998 to 111 per 1,000 live births in the period 1998-2003 makes the achievement of the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of reducing underfive mortality by two-thirds between 1990 and 2015 quite difficult to attain. Most of these deaths are preventable through the adoption of relatively simple and inexpensive strategies such as breastfeeding promotion, childhood vaccination, provision of basic hygiene and health education. The factors associated with high infant and child mortality include poverty, malnutrition, poor sanitation and inadequacy of health facilities. In addition, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) can be transmitted from mother to child before or during child birth and young children whose mothers die are at a very high risk of dying themselves at young age (United Nations, 1994). The health of infants and children is of crucial importance , both as a reflection of current health status of a large segment of the population and as a predictor of the health of the next generation. In 2000, persons aged less than five years comprised 14.7 % of the total population of Ghana. Protecting the health of this large population of infants and children today is an investment in the labour force of tomorrow. Good infant and child health is synonymous with wealth of the future. This chapter attempts to describe infant and child health inequalities as well as examine some of the factors that affect treatment of two common causes of illhealth among children namely; fever/cough and diarrhoea . Methodology The data are derived from the 2003 Ghana Demographic and Health Survey (GDHS), a nationally representative sample of women aged 15-49. The GDHS was designed to, among other things, collect information from female respondents, who were asked questions on topics such as respondent’s background, reproduction, antenatal and delivery care, breastfeeding, immunization, health and nutrition. The analysis is restricted to women aged 15-49 and their births in the five years preceding the survey. A total of 3,340 births comprising 1,114 or 33.4% and 2,226 or 66.6% respectively in the urban and rural areas were recorded in the five years prior to the survey. The indicators of infant and child health include breastfeeding practices, vaccination coverage, nutritional status, receipt of vitamin A supplement, prevalence of anaemia, prevalence and treatment of common childhood illnesses such as acute respiratory infection (AR1), fever and diarrhoea. The analysis does not include antenatal , delivery and postnatal care although these activities promote positive infant and child health outcomes. Two separate analyses are done. Bivariate analyses are used to examine relationships between selected demo30 POPULATION, HEALTH AND DEVELOPMENT graphic and socio-economic variables and childhood immunization coverage, breastfeeding practices, nutritional status, prevalence of anaemia, receipt of vitamin A supplement , prevalence and treatment-seeking for AR1, fever and diarrhoea. For the logistic regression analysis, all variables are categorical or grouped and for each variable, one category is selected as the reference category (RC). The two dependent variables used in the logistic regression analysis are receipt of medical treatment for fever/cough and receipt of medical treatment for diarrhoea. The results of logistic regression analysis are given as regression coefficients , odds ratio (if greater than unity, the probability of receiving medical treatment is higher than that of nonreceipt ), and p values, to assess the relative statistical significance of the selected variables. Results Childhood Mortality Poor infant and child health tends to result in high infant and child mortality levels. Table 1 provides information on early childhood mortality in Ghana to serve as a backdrop to examination of infant and child health inequalities by sex, type of place of residence and region. Under-five mortality is relatively high in Ghana. One out of nine children dies before attaining age five. Rural areas have considerably and consistently higher mortality levels than urban areas. For instance, under-five mortality in rural areas is 27% higher than it is in urban areas. There are wide regional differentials in under-five mortality. Under-five mortality varies from 75 per 1,000 live births in the Greater Accra Region to 208 per 1,000 live births in the Upper West Region. The rate for the Upper... | en_US |
| dc.identifier.other | Chapter 3, pp 29-52 | |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh/handle/123456789/29984 | |
| dc.language.iso | en | en_US |
| dc.publisher | Population, Health and Development in Ghana: Attaining the Millennium Development Goals | en_US |
| dc.title | Infant and child health: Evidence from 2003 Ghana demographic and health survey | en_US |
| dc.type | Book chapter | en_US |
Files
License bundle
1 - 1 of 1
No Thumbnail Available
- Name:
- license.txt
- Size:
- 1.6 KB
- Format:
- Item-specific license agreed upon to submission
- Description: