Functionings and Capabilities as Tools for Explaining Differences in Self- Assessed Health: The Case of Women’s Health in Accra, Ghana

We apply the Capability Approach on the data from a survey of women’s health in Accra to illustrate how such a framework can capture health differentials. We identified endowment groups by based on the wealth of the households and the socio-economic status of the neighbourhood of residence and analysed their association with the functionings, measured by summary indicators of physical and mental health. Regression analysis reveals that socio-cultural and household factors do not have a significant association with health status. In turn, education appears to have the predicted association with both physical and mental health. Unemployed women suffer poorer health even when compared with women in informal jobs. Being childless is associated with better health, remembering that this is now a low fertility population. The two dimensions of health measured here – physical and mental – do have different determinants. The socio-economic status of the neighbourhood affects physical health while family wealth affects mental health more strongly

The contribution of the Capability Approach to demographic analysis: lessons learned. Tracking Inequalities

In this concluding paper, we discuss the contribution of the Capability Approach to the “tracking” of inequalities, i.e. focusing on opportunities rather than outcomes and targeting both resources and the means to use these resources. We return to two central dimensions of our analyses: the  multiple nature of well-being and the different kinds of means that modulate the unequal individual ability to live a life of quality. We summarize our main results regarding the nature of health and its determinants, the function of services and the multiple meanings of occupation, as well as the role of contextual resources, individual endowments and acquired capacities. A third dimension concerns the role of the global context and what can be said in particular about differences between Mali and Ghana. In the last part, we discuss further developments to improve the tracking of inequalities, first through cross-cutting analyses of different sources of vulnerability and secondly, by making allowance for individual agency

Characterizing the radiative effect of rain using a global ensemble of cloud resolving simulations

The effect of rain on radiative fluxes and heating rates is a process that is neglected in most of the large scale atmospheric models used for weather forecasting or climate prediction. Yet, to our knowledge, the magnitude of the resulting radiative bias remains unquantified. This study aims to quantify the rain radiative effect (RRE) at a range of temporal and spatial scales, as a step towards determining whether the radiation schemes in these models should include rain. Using offline radiative transfer calculations with input from an ensemble of cloud resolving model simulations, we find that rain has a negligible effect on global mean radiative fluxes (less than 0.2 W m‐2). Weekly mean RREs at specific locations may be larger (less than 4 W m−2). At the finest temporal and spatial resolutions, the RRE can occasionally be much larger again (greater than 100 W m‐2), but values exceeding 10 W m‐2 occur in less than 0.1% of cases. Using detailed analysis of case studies we demonstrate that the magnitude and direction of the RRE depend on the rain water path, its vertical location with respect to cloud and, for longwave radiation, the temperature at which it occurs. Large RREs generally only occur when the rain water path is large and the cloud water path is small. These cases are infrequent and intermittent. As the RREs are generally small, we conclude that this missing process is unlikely to be important for large scale atmospheric models

Combining work and child care: The experiences of mothers in Accra, Ghana

Work-family research has focused predominantly on Western women. Yet the forms of economic labour in which women are typically involved and the meaning of motherhood are context-specific. This paper aims to explore the experience of combining economic activity and child care of mothers with young children using urban Ghana as a case study. Semi-structured interviews (n=24) were conducted in three locations in the Accra Metropolitan Area. Transcripts were analysed using the general inductive approach. The results found women’s experience of role conflict to be bi-directional. With regard to role enhancement, economic activity allowed women to provide materially for their children. The combination of work and child care had negative consequences for women’s wellbeing. This research questions policy makers’ strategy of frequently targeting women in their roles either as generators of income, or as the primary care-takers of children by highlighting the reality of women’s simultaneous performance of these roles

Sources d'information sur la santé et la mortalité en Afrique de l'Ouest : une étude comparative

Version anglaise disponible dans la Bibliothèque numérique du CRDI: West African sources of health and mortality information : a comparative revie

A multi-satellite climatology of clouds, radiation and precipitation in southern West Africa and comparison to climate models

Southern West Africa (SWA) has a large population that relies on highly variable monsoon rainfall, yet climate models show little consensus over projected precipitation in this region. Understanding of the current and future climate of SWA is further complicated by rapidly increasing anthropogenic emissions and a lack of surface observations. Using multiple satellite observations, the ERA-Interim reanalysis, and four climate models, we document the climatology of cloud, precipitation and radiation over SWA in June-July, highlight discrepancies among satellite products, and identify shortcomings in climate models and ERA-Interim. Large differences exist between monthly mean cloud cover estimates from satellites, which range from 68 to 94 %. In contrast, differences among satellite observations in top of atmosphere outgoing radiation and surface precipitation are smaller, with monthly means of about 230 W m–2 of longwave radiation, 145 W m–2 of shortwave radiation and 5.87 mm day–1 of precipitation. Both ERA-Interim and the climate models show less total cloud cover than observations, mainly due to underestimating low cloud cover. Errors in cloud cover, along with uncertainty in surface albedo, lead to a large spread of outgoing shortwave radiation. Both ERA-Interim and the climate models also show signs of convection developing too early in the diurnal cycle, with associated errors in the diurnal cycles of precipitation and outgoing longwave radiation. Clouds, radiation and precipitation are linked in an analysis of the regional energy budget, which shows that inter-annual variability of precipitation and dry static energy divergence are strongly linked

West African sources of health and mortality information : a comparative review

French version available in IDRC Digital Library: Sources d'information sur la santé et la mortalité en Afrique de l'Ouest : une étude comparativ

Quantifying the contribution of different cloud types to the radiation budget in southern West Africa

The contribution of cloud to the radiation budget of southern West Africa (SWA) is poorly understood yet is important for understanding regional monsoon evolution and for evaluating and improving climate models, which have large biases in this region. Radiative transfer calculations applied to atmospheric profiles obtained from the CERES-CloudSat-CALIPSO-MODIS (CCCM) dataset are used to investigate the effects of 12 different cloud types (defined by their vertical structure) on the regional energy budget of SWA (5–10 °N, 8 °W-8 °E) during June-September. We show that the large regional mean cloud radiative effect in SWA is due to non-negligible contributions from many different cloud types; 8 cloud types have a cloud fraction larger than 5 % and contribute at least 5 % of the regional mean shortwave cloud radiative effect at the top of atmosphere. Low-clouds, which are poorly observed by passive satellite measurements, were found to cause net radiative cooling of the atmosphere, which reduces the heating from other cloud types by approximately 10 %. The sensitivity of the radiation budget to underestimating low-cloud cover is also investigated. The radiative effect of missing low-cloud is found to be up to approximately –25 W m-2 for upwelling shortwave irradiance at the top of atmosphere and 35 W m-2 for downwelling shortwave irradiance at the surface

Dementia incidence, APOE genotype, and risk factors for cognitive decline in Aboriginal Australians

Background and Objectives Aboriginal Australians are disproportionately affected by dementia, with incidence in remote populations approximately double that of non-Indigenous populations. This study aimed to identify dementia incidence and risk factors in Aboriginal Australians residing in urban areas, which are currently unknown. Methods A population-based cohort of Aboriginal Australians ≥60 years of age was assessed at baseline and 6-year follow-up. Life-course risk factors (baseline) were examined for incident dementia or mild cognitive impairment (MCI) through logistic regression analyses; adjustments were made for age. APOE genotyping was available for 86 people. Results Data were included from 155 participants 60 to 86 years of age (mean 65.70 years, SD 5.65 years; 59 male). There were 16 incident dementia cases (age-standardized rate 35.97/1,000 person-years, 95% confidence interval [CI] 18.34–53.60) and 36 combined incident MCI and dementia cases. Older age (odds ratio [OR] 2.29, 95% CI 1.42–3.70), male sex (OR 4.14, 95% CI 1.60–10.77), unskilled work history (OR 5.09, 95% CI 1.95–13.26), polypharmacy (OR 3.11, 95% CI 1.17–8.28), and past smoking (OR 0.24, 95% CI 0.08–0.75) were associated with incident MCI/dementia in the final model. APOE e4 allele frequency was 24%; heterozygous or homozygous e4 was associated with incident MCI/dementia (bivariate OR 3.96, 95% CI 1.25–12.50). Discussion These findings provide evidence for higher dementia incidence in Aboriginal Australians from urban areas, where the majority of Aboriginal people reside. This study also sheds light on sociodemographic, health, and genetic factors associated with incident MCI/dementia at older ages in this population, which is critical for targeted prevention strategies