Causes from which untimely deaths occur provide some of the indicators for measuring the quality ... more Causes from which untimely deaths occur provide some of the indicators for measuring the quality of health care in countries. Over the years, several measures have been advocated for measuring population health and one of such measures is the avoidable mortality concept. Using retrospective verbal autopsy data generated between 1995 and 1999 from the Navrongo Demographic and Surveillance System, this paper examines predominant causes of death, locating the discourse in avoidable mortality framework. For the period studied, consistent similar causes of death are identified among children and adults, and these reflect systemic environmental, cultural and socioeconomic underdevelopment. More than 70% of premature mortality in the district was triggered by causes that are amenable to public health, primary health and hospital care, and of which basic treatment, case detection and primary and secondary prevention could have averted a significant proportion. On the whole, the results prov...
Sexual and reproductive health (SRH) education is a key component in a multifaceted approach to a... more Sexual and reproductive health (SRH) education is a key component in a multifaceted approach to address the sexual and reproductive health needs of adolescents. In senior high schools SRH education topics are integrated into two core and two elective subjects but those in the core subjects are limited in scope and the overall approach emphasizes abstinence. Three-fourths of students were exposed to at least one topic in five key categories related to SRH education; only 8% of students reported learning about all of the topics that constitute a comprehensive curriculum according to international guidelines. Nearly all students had learned about abstinence HIV reproductive physiology and SRH rights in their classes; fewer than half had learned about contraceptive methods and practical skills such as communicating in relationships where to access HIV or STI services how to use contraceptives or where to get them. Teachers reported challenges to teaching SRH topics effectively including...
The limited opportunities available for refugees to resettle in a third country, the reluctance o... more The limited opportunities available for refugees to resettle in a third country, the reluctance of refugees to voluntarily repatriate to place of origin and the unwillingness of some host countries to encourage the integration of refugees have led to protracted refugee situations, especially in developing countries. This paper assesses factors likely to influence the integration of refugees at a camp near Krisan in the Western Region of Ghana within the context of refugee-host interaction. Quantitative data were collected from 180 people from the host population and 180 refugees and in-depth interviews were held with opinion leaders, representatives of UNHCR and partners. The paper argues that the integration of refugees depends on the tolerance of host communities to infractions and the preparedness of the refugees to operate within the accep table norms of the community. Where the activities of refugees threaten the systems of the host population, peaceful coexistence is likely to...
Institute, for helping to develop the design of the survey questionnaire, providing initial feedb... more Institute, for helping to develop the design of the survey questionnaire, providing initial feedback on the results and contributing insights to the interpretations presented in this report. Data tabulation and entry assistance were provided by Suzette Audam, Humera Ahmed and Kate Patterson of the Guttmacher Institute. We also appreciate the contribution of our other colleagues at the Guttmacher Institute. Many thanks are due to colleagues at ORC Macro— Pav Govindasamy, Albert Themme, Jeanne Cushing, Alfredo Aliaga and Rebecca Stallings—for input into all facets of the survey design and coordinating the pretest, sample selection, training, fielding, and data editing and cleaning. The key institution behind the survey fielding was the Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research in Legon, and John Anarfi, Ernest Aryeetey and Kudjoe Dovlo contributed important input and leadership during the fieldwork. The survey’s success was based on the hard work of the eight field teams ...
The authors thank the following colleagues for their comments and help in developing this report:... more The authors thank the following colleagues for their comments and help in developing this report: Akinrinola
This study basically aims at estimating fertility and childhood mortality rates for a rural commu... more This study basically aims at estimating fertility and childhood mortality rates for a rural community in the Western Region of Ghana using the pregnancy history method. The method was found to have a few advantages over other indirect methods used for estimating fertility and childhood mortality. However, pregnancy history data suffer from under-reporting, event misplacement and age mis-statement errors; and these off-set some of the advantages of the method. The observed rates from the study area gave an implausible impression of a rise and fall in fertility and childhood mortality in the last 15 years preceding the survey. This feature is believed to be associated with event misplacement errors. The reported data was smoothed using the moving average procedure. Age-specific fertility rates among younger women were found to be declining in the last 10 years preceding the survey; and this was believed to be related to the impact of formal education. Fertility in the area was high an...
Causes from which untimely deaths occur provide some of the indicators for measuring the quality ... more Causes from which untimely deaths occur provide some of the indicators for measuring the quality of health care in countries. Over the years, several measures have been advocated for measuring population health and one of such measures is the avoidable mortality concept. Using retrospective verbal autopsy data generated between 1995 and 1999 from the Navrongo Demographic and Surveillance System, this paper examines predominant causes of death, locating the discourse in avoidable mortality framework. For the period studied, consistent similar causes of death are identified among children and adults, and these reflect systemic environmental, cultural and socioeconomic underdevelopment. More than 70% of premature mortality in the district was triggered by causes that are amenable to public health, primary health and hospital care, and of which basic treatment, case detection and primary and secondary prevention could have averted a significant proportion. On the whole, the results prov...
Sexual and reproductive health (SRH) education is a key component in a multifaceted approach to a... more Sexual and reproductive health (SRH) education is a key component in a multifaceted approach to address the sexual and reproductive health needs of adolescents. In senior high schools SRH education topics are integrated into two core and two elective subjects but those in the core subjects are limited in scope and the overall approach emphasizes abstinence. Three-fourths of students were exposed to at least one topic in five key categories related to SRH education; only 8% of students reported learning about all of the topics that constitute a comprehensive curriculum according to international guidelines. Nearly all students had learned about abstinence HIV reproductive physiology and SRH rights in their classes; fewer than half had learned about contraceptive methods and practical skills such as communicating in relationships where to access HIV or STI services how to use contraceptives or where to get them. Teachers reported challenges to teaching SRH topics effectively including...
The limited opportunities available for refugees to resettle in a third country, the reluctance o... more The limited opportunities available for refugees to resettle in a third country, the reluctance of refugees to voluntarily repatriate to place of origin and the unwillingness of some host countries to encourage the integration of refugees have led to protracted refugee situations, especially in developing countries. This paper assesses factors likely to influence the integration of refugees at a camp near Krisan in the Western Region of Ghana within the context of refugee-host interaction. Quantitative data were collected from 180 people from the host population and 180 refugees and in-depth interviews were held with opinion leaders, representatives of UNHCR and partners. The paper argues that the integration of refugees depends on the tolerance of host communities to infractions and the preparedness of the refugees to operate within the accep table norms of the community. Where the activities of refugees threaten the systems of the host population, peaceful coexistence is likely to...
Institute, for helping to develop the design of the survey questionnaire, providing initial feedb... more Institute, for helping to develop the design of the survey questionnaire, providing initial feedback on the results and contributing insights to the interpretations presented in this report. Data tabulation and entry assistance were provided by Suzette Audam, Humera Ahmed and Kate Patterson of the Guttmacher Institute. We also appreciate the contribution of our other colleagues at the Guttmacher Institute. Many thanks are due to colleagues at ORC Macro— Pav Govindasamy, Albert Themme, Jeanne Cushing, Alfredo Aliaga and Rebecca Stallings—for input into all facets of the survey design and coordinating the pretest, sample selection, training, fielding, and data editing and cleaning. The key institution behind the survey fielding was the Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research in Legon, and John Anarfi, Ernest Aryeetey and Kudjoe Dovlo contributed important input and leadership during the fieldwork. The survey’s success was based on the hard work of the eight field teams ...
The authors thank the following colleagues for their comments and help in developing this report:... more The authors thank the following colleagues for their comments and help in developing this report: Akinrinola
This study basically aims at estimating fertility and childhood mortality rates for a rural commu... more This study basically aims at estimating fertility and childhood mortality rates for a rural community in the Western Region of Ghana using the pregnancy history method. The method was found to have a few advantages over other indirect methods used for estimating fertility and childhood mortality. However, pregnancy history data suffer from under-reporting, event misplacement and age mis-statement errors; and these off-set some of the advantages of the method. The observed rates from the study area gave an implausible impression of a rise and fall in fertility and childhood mortality in the last 15 years preceding the survey. This feature is believed to be associated with event misplacement errors. The reported data was smoothed using the moving average procedure. Age-specific fertility rates among younger women were found to be declining in the last 10 years preceding the survey; and this was believed to be related to the impact of formal education. Fertility in the area was high an...
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