Synthesizing qualitative and quantitative evidence on non-financial access barriers: Implications for assessment at the district level
Introduction: A key element of the global drive to universal health coverage is ensuring access to needed health services for everyone, and to pursue this goal in an equitable way. This requires concerted efforts to reduce disparities in access through understanding and acting on barriers facing communities with the lowest utilisation levels. Financial barriers dominate […]
Sociodemographic Factors Associated with Women’s Perspectives on Male Involvement in Antenatal Care, Labour, and Childbirth
Background. Evidence suggests that in patriarchal societies such as Ghana, access to and survival of maternal and child healthcare services require the active involvement of men. However, interventions to promote men’s involvement in maternal and child health care are less likely to succeed if the views and concerns of women are not considered. This study […]
Mixed effects analysis of factors associated with health insurance coverage among women in sub-Saharan Africa
Introduction In the pursuit of achieving the Sustainable Development Goal targets of universal health coverage and reducing maternal mortality, many countries in sub-Saharan Africa have implemented health insurance policies over the last two decades. Given that there is a paucity of empirical literature at the sub-regional level, we examined the prevalence and factors associated with […]
A qualitative study of women’s network social support and facility delivery in rural Ghana
Similar to many sub-Saharan African countries, maternal mortality in Ghana ranks among the highest (39 th ) globally. Prior research has demonstrated the impact of social network characteristics on health facility delivery in sub-Saharan Africa. However, in-depth examination of the function of all members in a woman’s network, in providing various types of support for […]
Introduction of the Ellavi uterine balloon tamponade into the Kenyan and Ghanaian maternal healthcare package for improved postpartum haemorrhage management: An implementation research study
Objectives Use of intrauterine balloon tamponades for refractory postpartum haemorrhage (PPH) management has triggered recent debate since effectiveness studies have yielded conflicting results. Implementation research is needed to identify factors influencing successful integration into maternal healthcare packages. The Ellavi uterine balloon tamponade (UBT) (Ellavi) is a new low-cost, preassembled device for treating refractory PPH. Design […]
Impact of a bottom-up community engagement intervention on maternal and child health services utilization in Ghana: A cluster randomised trial
Background: Ghana is among African countries not likely to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) three (3) target of reducing maternal mortality to 70 per 100,000 live births by the year 2030 if maternal and child health services utilization are not improved. Community engagement in health is therefore advocated to help address this challenge. This […]
The effect of maternal and child factors on stunting, wasting and underweight among preschool children in Northern Ghana
Background: Undernutrition among preschool children in Northern region is the highest in Ghana. However, there is scarcity of data on the factors that determine undernutrition in these children. This study investigated the effect of maternal and child factors on undernutrition among preschool children in Northern Ghana. Methods: This study was a community based analytical cross-sectional […]
Assessing program coverage of two approaches to distributing a complementary feeding supplement to infants and young children in Ghana
The work reported here assesses the coverage achieved by two sales-based approaches to distributing a complementary food supplement (KOKO Plus™) to infants and young children in Ghana. Delivery Model 1 was conducted in the Northern Region of Ghana and used a mixture of health extension workers (delivering behavior change communications and demand creation activities at […]
Multi-country analysis of the effects of diarrhoea on childhood stunting
Diarrhoea is an important cause of death and illness among children in developing countries; however, it remains controversial as to whether diarrhoea leads to stunting. We conducted a pooled analysis of nine studies that collected daily diarrhoea morbidity and longitudinal anthropometry to determine the effects of the longitudinal history of diarrhoea prior to 24 months […]
Measuring and explaining changing patterns of inequality in institutional deliveries between urban and rural women in Ghana: A decomposition analysis
Background: Despite recent progress in improving access to maternal health services, the utilization of these services remains inequitable among women in developing countries, and rural women are particularly disadvantaged. This study sought to measure i) disparities in the rates of institutional births between rural and urban women in Ghana, ii) the extent to which existing […]
