Crude childhood vaccination coverage in West Africa: Trends and predictors of completeness [version 1; Referees: 1 approved, 3 approved with reservations]
Background: Africa has the lowest childhood vaccination coverage worldwide. If the full benefits of childhood vaccination programmes are to be enjoyed in sub-Saharan Africa, all countries need to improve on vaccine delivery to achieve and sustain high coverage. In this paper, we review trends in vaccination coverage, dropouts between vaccine doses and explored the country-specific […]
The epidemiology of undernutrition and its determinants in children under five years in Ghana
Background Understanding the burden and contextual risk factors is critical for developing appropriate interventions to control undernutrition. Methods This study used data from the 2014 Ghana Demographic and Health Survey to estimate the prevalence of underweight, stunting, and wasting. Single multiple logistic regressions were used to identify the factors associated with underweight, wasting and stunting. […]
EMBRACE intervention to improve the continuum of care in maternal and newborn health in Ghana: The RE-AIM framework-based evaluation
Background: Improving maternal and newborn health remains one of the most critical public health challenges, particularly in low- and lower-middle-income countries. To overcome this challenge, interventions to improve the continuum of care based on real-world settings need to be provided. The Ghana Ensure Mothers and Babies Regular Access to Care (EMBRACE) Implementation Research Team conducted […]
Technical analysis, contestation and politics in policy agenda setting and implementation: The rise and fall of primary care maternal services from Ghana’s capitation policy
Background: Why issues get on the policy agenda, move into policy formulation and implementation while others drop off in the process is an important field of enquiry to inform public social policy development and implementation. This paper seeks to advance our understanding of health policy agenda setting, formulation and implementation processes in Ghana, a lower […]
Maternal HIV is associated with reduced growth in the first year of life among infants in the Eastern region of Ghana: The research to improve infant nutrition and growth (RIING) project
Children of HIV-infected mothers experience poor growth, but not much is understood about the extent to which such children are affected. The Research to Improve Infant Nutrition and Growth (RIING) Project used a longitudinal study design to investigate the association between maternal HIV status and growth among Ghanaian infants in the first year of life. […]
Spatial inequalities in skilled attendance at birth in Ghana: a multilevel analysis integrating health facility databases with household survey data
Objective: This study aimed at using survey data to predict skilled attendance at birth (SBA) across Ghana from healthcare quality and health facility accessibility. Methods: Through a cross-sectional, observational study, we used a random intercept mixed effects multilevel logistic modelling approach to estimate the odds of having SBA and then applied model estimates to spatial […]
Willing but unable? Extending theory to investigate community capacity to participate in Ghana’s community-based health planning and service implementation
While primary health care programmes based on community participation are widely implemented in low- and middle- income settings, empirical evidence on whether and to what extent local people have the capacity to participate, support and drive such programmes scale up is scant in these countries. This paper assessed the level of community capacity to participate […]
Individual, maternal and household risk factors for anaemia among young children in sub-Saharan Africa: A cross-sectional study
Objective Anaemia affects the majority of children in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Previous studies of risk factors for anaemia have been limited by sample size, geography and the association of many risk factors with poverty. In order to measure the relative impact of individual, maternal and household risk factors for anaemia in young children, we analysed […]
Multisite, mixed methods study to validate 10 maternal health system and policy indicators in Argentina, Ghana and India: A research protocol
Introduction Most efforts to assess maternal health indicator validity focus on measures of service coverage. Fewer measures focus on the upstream enabling environment, and such measures are typically not research validated. Thus, methods for validating system and policy-level indicators are not well described. This protocol describes original multicountry research to be conducted in Argentina, Ghana […]
Participating in a Nutrition-Sensitive Agriculture Intervention Is Not Associated with Less Maternal Time for Care in a Rural Ghanaian District
Background: Nutrition-sensitive agriculture (NSA) interventions may increase farm-related work for mothers, with consequences for child nutrition. The Nutrition Links (NL) intervention provided mothers with poultry, gardening inputs, technical support, and education to improve livelihoods and child nutrition outcomes in rural Ghana. Objectives: Our objective was to compare time allocated to child care by a cross-section […]
