ABSTRACT It is the right of every child to get an identity and nationality. Birth registration involves documentation of a child’s birth in the civil register by the government authority and it is the first legal document of a child. It provides vital information that facilitates planning and development in a country. In Ghana, about 50% of children under five are registered. In recent years, maternal education is said to be influencing birth registration. Specifically, it is proposed tha...
ABSTRACT When a woman is faced with an unintended pregnancy the onus lies on her to either carry the pregnancy to term or terminate it, and in the developing world the majority of these are terminated unsafely. The problem of induced abortion can further be exacerbated when they become repeated. Women who have previous records of induced abortion stand a greater risk of resorting to it again when the need arises. It is therefore necessary to note the factors that serve as contributors to the...
ABSTRACT This study set out to examine the determinants of infant mortality in Tanzania. Data from the Tanzania Demographic and Health Survey (TDHS), 2010 were used. A total number of 2,976 children who were born to women aged 15-49 years during the period of one year preceding the survey were involved during the study. The specific objectives of this study were; to describe the mothers‘ background characteristics, to establish the relationship between mothers‘ background variables and i...
ABSTRACT Globally, about 7.7 million children under five years died in 2010. In Ghana, the under-five mortality rate is estimated at 72 deaths per 1000 live births in 2012 according to UNICEF. Although there has been a decline in under-five mortality in Ghana, substantial progress is required to achieve the Millennium Development Goal 4 by reducing child mortality by 2015. Several interventions have been put in place to ensure child survival. The study aimed at examining the relationship bet...
ABSTRACT Divorce is becoming a major developmental issue in modern society because of its high rate of increase in recent years. While the phenomenon has gained much attention in research in the developed world, less is known in the developing world especially in Sub-Saharan Africa. Meanwhile works have shown that through the processes of modernization and globalization, Sub-Saharan Africa including Ghana is beginning to experience the same family changes caused by divorce in the developed wo...
ABSTRACT Infant mortality rates in less developed countries are still high. Over the years in Ghana, successive governments have implemented policies and programs that have resulted in a decline in the infant mortality rate, especially in the rural areas. This study examined the factors associated with infant death among rural residents of Ghana, using data from the last four rounds (1998, 2003, 2008 and 2014) of the Ghana Demographic and Health Survey (GDHS). A comparative method was used, p...
ABSTRACT Though several studies have shown an association between mobility and risky sexual behaviour, these studies did not distinguish between mobile and migrant population. However, the tendency for a mobile person to engage in risky sexual behaviour differs from that of a migrant because of the frequency of movement and the short duration of stay of a mobile person. This study therefore examined the relationship between mobility and risky sexual behaviour in Ghana using the 2014 Ghana Dem...
ABSTRACT The simplest and most basic census item age, mostly present difficulties with regard to its accuracy in statistically underdeveloped countries where civil registration coverage is limited in terms of its accessibility. The study aimed at evaluating and adjusting age data of the population and housing census of Ghana. Several evaluation tools were used to examine the errors. These include visual inspection of the data and at the same time graphing the single age data which revealed h...
ABSTRACT The literature suggests that globally adolescents initiate sex before age 15. In Ghana, young females initiate sex relatively earlier than males. Studies indicate that the age at which one experiences first sex in itself is not the problem, but rather the challenges resulting from the numerous health and social implications associated with it. One outcome in the literature for early sexual activity is a high number of sexual partners which is associated with a risk of contracting HIV...
ABSTRACT Whilst there are claims that women in Ghana are involved in alcohol consumption behaviours that pose threats to the maternal health and social development of the country, extensive empirical research in Ghana to confirm these claims are unknown. Using a quantitative data sample of 548 women from the EDULINK Urban Health and Poverty wave II project, the study specifically examined the prevalence and socio-economic and demographic factors affecting alcohol use among women in Ghana. The...
ABSTRACT Factors that determine exclusive breastfeeding in Ghana are important, especially in line with recommendation by WHO/UNICEF. The difference between WHO/UNICEF recommendations of 90% and the level of coverage of exclusive breastfeeding in Ghana (45%) is wide. The study examines exclusive breastfeeding up to 6 months of age as recommended by WHO/UNICEF. It also determines possible factors that influence the progress of exclusive breastfeeding in Ghana, to inform possible strategies for...
ABSTRACT This dissertation uses data from the 2000 and 2010 Ghana Population and Housing Censuses on the active labour force aged 15-64 years and carries out a comparison of 2000 and 2010 regarding the socio-economic differences associated with unemployment in both years. It examines the variation between the unemployed in 2000 and 2010 in terms of their level of education and place of residence and investigates the factors that explain these variations. The study sampled a total of 828,048 a...
ABSTRACT Food insecurity remains a global health challenge especially for poor areas in developing countries. One of the ways through which access to food can be boosted for the rural dwellers is through access to land, as agriculture is the leading source of income for agricultural-based economies. Little attention, however, has been given to how land ownership arrangements of rural dwellers can affect their food security in Ghana. The study therefore examined the relationship between land ...
Provision and improvement in maternal health services is of critical concern for all governments all over the world particularly those in low to middle-income countries. This led the global community to adopt the United Nations Millennium Development Goal 5 target of reducing by three-quarters the maternal mortality ratio between 1990 and 2015 (United Nations, 2010) so as to improve the well being of women. Crucial to this is access to quality maternal health care including antenatal and...
ABSTRACT Most studies on knowledge of ovulatory cycle have predominantly established it to have an influence on the effective use of contraception. However studies on knowledge of ovulatory cycle and fertility remains an unexplored area in literature. Filling this gap may prove vital, especially at a time when efforts towards controlling fertility already in place appear to be ineffective. According to the 2014 GDHS, Ghana has experienced a slight increase in TFR from 4.0 in 2008 to 4.2 in 20...