A Situational Analysis of Pregnancy Related Challenges in the Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolis, Ghana.

This research article present pregnancy related challenges within the Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolis, Ghana. Identify ways of managing or minimizing these challenges to ensure a healthy pregnancy and safe delivery, and also to ascertain the prevalence of maternal mortality due to pregnancy related challenges in the Metropolis. The design employed for the study was descriptive with target population being pregnant women in the Metropolis. It was found out that, maternal deaths due to pregnancy complications had obstructed labour ranked high (80%) on the list of complications while deaths due to nutritional anemia, unsafe abortion, hemorrhage and sepsis were of average rate. It was also observed that eclampsia and pulmonary oedema, which were high, ran across all the three hospitals studied. It was recommended that, health persons be given frequent refresher programmes to familiarize themselves with new trends on the field. Key words: maternal death due to pregnancy complications, Pregnancy related challenges, Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolis

Analysis of Health Data from A Health Facility in Effia-Kwesimintsim Area of Sekondi-Takoradi, Ghana

Data gathered by our health institutions in the course of their work are an important source of information on disease patterns and their spatial distribution. Such information could be crucial in planning our public health policy. This paper reports on an analysis carried out on four kinds of data: Monthly Outpatient Morbidity Data, Statement of Outpatients, Statement of Inpatients and the Monthly Bed State Data of a health facility in Takoradi, Ghana. The data spans the six-year period of 1997 to 2002. The objectives of the study were to: (i) Identify the leading diseases reported to the health facility, (ii) Identify the patterns, if any, in the diseases reported to the health facility, (iii) Explore the data with the view to finding any unsuspected characteristics. The analysis of the data relied on descriptive statistics and time series analysis.  Projected values of the number of cases of the diseases to be reported to the health facility,  particularly that of malaria in the years following the period under consideration were explored. The results from the analysis showed that Malaria is the leading of the 13 most common diseases in the catchment area with an upward trend in the number of cases reported to the health facility for the period under consideration. It was also found that the number of cases of Pneumonia and Hypertension were on the ascendancy in the period under consideration while tuberculosis is the most prevalent of the ‘Six Child Killer Diseases’ - Diphtheria, Poliomyelitis, Tetanus, Measles, Whooping Cough, and Tuberculosis  -  in the catchment area. Further, Females and the age group  0 - 4  years are the subgroups in the population of the catchment area that require the most medical attention. A probable causal factor in the dramatic rise in the number of malaria cases in 2001 was identified to be the construction of the Takoradi-Agona Nkwanta section of the Trans-West Africa highway which runs through the catchment area of the health facility. Keywords: Time series, Forecast, Health statistic

The Impact of Power Outage “Dumsor” on the Hotel Industry: Evidence from Ghana

Ghana has for several years been experiencing massive power blackouts popularly nicknamed 'Dumsor,' which means on and off in the Akan dialect. The role of electricity in Ghana’s economy is prodigiously significant for growth and development. The purpose of the study was to explore the impact of power outage (‘Dumsor’) on the hotel industry in Ghana. The study adopted an explanatory research design covering a stratified sample of 100 drawn from 5, 4, 3 and 2 stars hotels across major cities in Ghana. A set of structured questionnaires was used to collect data and analyzed through descriptive and inferential statistics. The validity/reliability test indicates that the questions were 89% reliable to be used for explanatory analysis of the study and achieved a response rate of 93%. There was a general outcry of unreliable power supply as majority of the respondents indicated the hotels experienced lights out intermittently and unannounced within a week for not less than 12 hours per day which has led to low productivity (86%). Also 92% of the respondents indicated that the effect of ‘dumsor’ has led to high production cost, high rate of redundancy of employees, an increase in maintenance cost, damage to plant/equipments/appliance and perishability of items. The five independent variables accounted for 90% of variations as a result of the power outages and were thus critical to the smooth operations of the hotel industry in Ghana. The study also revealed that an increase in power outages by one unit will increase and worsen the situation (redundancy, perishability of items, and cost of alternative power supply, damage to plant/equipment/appliances and maintenance cost) by 0.401, 0.228, 0.426, 0.218 and 0.316 respectively. To improve on this menace energy crisis, the government and stakeholders should put mechanisms in place to avert this energy canker. Government should have the political will and put incentives in the area of power generation to make it workable. Keywords: Hotel industry, power outage (‘Dumsor’), power supply, explanatory research design and regression coefficients

Modelling the Economic Growth Rate of Ghana using the Solow Model

The main objective of this study was to use the Solow growth model (Augmented Cobb-Douglas production function) as a basis to model the economic growth of Ghana during the period 1990 to 2010. Economic growth around the world has not been equal for a long time. Some economies grow faster than others. Economists have predicted that the slower growing economies will eventually converge to the faster growing economies at some point in time. In this study, we model the economic growth of Ghana using the Solow production model and applying growth differential equations. Starting from the estimates of the parameters from other studies, the growth model was simulated for the period 1990 to 2010. The recording and computation of the data was done using Matlab, SPSS and Excel. The computations were Capital, Labour force, Total Factor Productivity, and Total Production and the results from models were compared with the real GDP growth figures and variations noted. The estimations from the model were compared with the actual figures from the Ghana Statistical Service, World Bank and Bank of Ghana. The model provides a good approximation of the dynamics of the Ghanaian economy for the 1990 to 2010 periods, with respect to the dynamics of the real aggregate GDP growth and to the ratios of the main macroeconomic variables, like production per worker, capital-output ratio or capital per worker. The results showed a very close relationship between the actual and calculated growth rates over the periods 1990 to 2010. The actual average growth rate over the period was 4.5% as compared to the calculated average value of 4.21%. In conclusion, there was a correlation between the actual growth rates and the calculated but the strength was weak. Keywords: Solow growth model, Economic growth of Ghana, Real GDP growth, Macroeconomic variables, actual and calculated growth rat