Is it a rights violation or lack of knowledge about options? An examination of HIV counselors views on whether women infected with HIV should procreate

Pan African Medical Journal 2013; 14: 7

Integration of family planning into other health services in Ghana: Performance needs assessment at four facilities in the Ashanti and Eastern regions

With support from the Population Council, the Reducing Maternal Morbidity and Mortality Program worked with the Ghana Health Service to conduct a performance needs assessment on family planning (FP) integration in four facilities in two of the country’s regions. The purpose of this endeavor was ultimately to pilot a project to develop and implement interventions that would improve clients’ access to FP at these facilities, based on the current and desired FP service provision levels, from the viewpoint of facility staff themselves, while taking into account client preferences. This midterm survey sought to assess the status of the integration process of FP into other reproductive health services to enable the Population Council and other stakeholders to glean relevant and useful information regarding the course of their intervention, which seeks to facilitate the above integration process. The key points that emerge from this midterm assessment are compared to those of the baseline and are summarized under eight thematic areas: reproductive history, interaction with FP providers, FP provision, job expectations, performance feedback, motivation, knowledge and skills, and infrastructure

Improving nutrition, unlocking potential, and accelerating change in Africa : the role of measurement, evaluation, accountability, and leadership support (MEALS)

This is a one-page outline of key points from a presenter at the International Congress of Dietetics (ICD), September 2021, in Cape Town South Africa. It reviews efforts to improve healthiness of the Ghanaian food environment, and policies required to account for people’s lived environments that encompass regulatory, legislative, and fiscal measures

Development of ethically appropriate HIV epidemic response strategy in a resource poor setting: the case of Ghana_

University of Minnesota M.A. thesis. June 2014. Major: Bioethics. Advisor: Debra DeBruin. 1 computer file (PDF); vi, 59 pages.Responding to HIV at global, regional, or local levels can give rise to a multitude of ethical tensions. To provide a comprehensive response to her HIV epidemic, Ghana has developed national plans, policies, and protocols. This thesis aimed to assess the ethics sensitivity of these guiding documents. The assessment included the quality of ethical reasoning and argumentation. Documents were assessed in their entirety using leading frameworks from public health ethics. The documents I reviewed have many strengths and also notable weaknesses. Generally, the documents reflect an underdeveloped understanding of potential and real ethical concerns. These documents provide inadequate responses to diminished rights of key populations. The prioritization schemes delineated in the documents, while sound from a public health perspective, lack adequate ethical justifications. The universal acknowledgement of chronic shortage of antiretroviral medications in the documents is not accompanied by practical recommendations concerning how to address such shortages. Guidelines addressing how to ethically allocate this scarce commodity do not exist.Laar, Amos. (2014). Development of ethically appropriate HIV epidemic response strategy in a resource poor setting: the case of Ghana_. Retrieved from the University Digital Conservancy, https://hdl.handle.net/11299/165558

Providing measurements, evaluation, accountability & leadership support (MEALS) for NCDs prevention : lessons from Ghana

Analysis covering the period 1980–2015 reveals a 500% increase in prevalence of adult obesity in Ghana. The presentation provides statistics regarding obesity and non-communicable diseases (NCD), as well as a review of studies towards better food and health policy actions. The Measurement, Evaluation, Accountability & Leadership Support (MEALS4NCD) prevention project measures and supports public sector actions that create healthy food marketing, retail and provisioning environments along with better food policy

Ghanaian [urban] food environment : an introduction

Analysis covering the period 1980–2015, reveals >500% increase in prevalence of adult obesity in Ghana. The presentation reviews background information and statistics, countermeasures and activities, such as government policies (including ‘policy inertia’), research capacity building, implementation (and non-implementation) of recommended best practices, and current efforts at reducing promotion of unhealthy foods

Building consumer confidence in the current, and the future food system we desire

This speech advocates for the engagement of young people in changing food systems. If Governments introduce policy measures that serve to restrict the promotion of unhealthy foods (for example, foods high in added sugars/sugar sweetened beverages, salt, saturated fats, trans fatty acids) to consumers/children; then production, processing, importation, marketing, or promotion of these unhealthy foods will be reduced making them less available. Food systems must inspire public confidence; they must prevent undernutrition and work with principles in mind: People; Planet; Prosperity

Action group 4 : enabling environment

The presentation breaks down components of a healthy food environment that could help improve policy and practice. It provides descriptions of factors that can influence dietary transition, with implications for policy. The MEALS4NCDs project (Providing Measurement, Evaluation Accountability & Leadership Support for Non-Communicable Disease Prevention) current focus is to support public sector actions that create healthy food environments for Ghanaian children, for instance, restricting unhealthy food marketing to children and improving school nutrition environments

Predictors of Health Care Service Quality among Women Insured Under Ghana’s National Health Insurance Scheme

Background: Insured women in Ghana are more likely to use maternity care services than their uninsured counterparts. To improve service quality among insured women in Ghana, better understanding of the factors that predict quality standards of primary health care services is essential. Objective: To examine predictors of health care service quality among insured women under the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) in Ghana. Methods: Data from the 2014 Ghana Demographic Health Survey was analysed. Cluster analysis was applied to construct a dependent variable; service care quality. Socio-demographic/background characteristics were used as independent variables. Descriptive and inferential analyses were performed followed by multiple regression to predict service quality among the insured population of women aged 15–49 years. SPSS version 21 was used during the clustering while STATA version 14 was used to perform the inferential and regression analyses. Findings: Overall, geographical region of respondents was significant to expressions of insured service quality (χ2=495.4, p ≤ 0.001). Literacy levels were significant at χ2=69.232 and p ≤ 0.001 for service quality. On place of residence, the estimation show urban residency was more positively correlated with indicating quality ratings of health services compared to rural residency (χ2=70.29, p ≤ 0.001). Highest educational level had the highest predictive influence with a coefficient of 0.15. Conclusions:A more supportive health insurance system approach that shifts towards introducing valued-based care models for patients, insurers and health care providers could be supportive in improving quality standards among insured population groups in Ghana

Predictors of fetal anemia and cord blood malaria parasitemia among newborns of HIV-positive mothers

Background: Malaria and HIV infections during pregnancy can individually or jointly unleash or confound pregnancy outcomes. Two of the probable outcomes are fetal anemia and cord blood malaria parasitemia. We determined clinical and demographic factors associated with fetal anemia and cord blood malaria parasitemia in newborns of HIV-positive women from two districts in Ghana. Results: We enrolled 1,154 antenatal attendees (443 HIV-positive and 711 HIV-negative) of which 66% were prospectively followed up at delivery. Maternal malaria parasitemia, and anemia rates among HIV+ participants at enrolment were 20.3% and 78.7% respectively, and 12.8% and 51.6% among HIV- participants. Multivariate linear and logistic regression models were used to study associations. Prevalence of fetal anemia (cord hemoglobin level < 12.5 g/dL) and cord parasitemia (presence of P. falciparum in cord blood at delivery) were 57.3% and 24.4% respectively. Factors found to be associated with fetal anemia were maternal malaria parasitemia and maternal anemia. Infant cord hemoglobin status at delivery was positively and significantly associated with maternal hemoglobin and gestational age whilst female gender of infant was negatively associated with cord hemoglobin status. Maternal malaria parasitemia status at recruitment and female gender of infant were positively associated with infant cord malaria parasitemia status. Conclusions: Our data show that newborns of women infected with HIV and/or malaria are at increased risk of anemia and also cord blood malaria parasitemia. Prevention of malaria infection during pregnancy may reduce the incidence of both adverse perinatal outcomes. © 2013 Laar et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd