Low Birth Weight and Associated Maternal Factors in Ghana

This study examines the prevalence of low birth weight (LBW) among infants and its association with maternal factors in Ghana. The study used a data set based on alongitudinal study from the fourth round Multiple Indicators Cluster Survey (MICS). This was a national  survey conducted by Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) in 2011 to monitor the progress of women and children. A sample of 10,963 women within the reproductive age (15 - 49 years) across the country between 2009 and 2011 were selected for the survey. In this study, a multiple logistic regression was used to determine the relationship of maternal factors and low birth weight. The estimated LBW prevalence was 9.2% which is higher than other part of the world. Few children are weighed at birth as less than 50% of babies born in Ghana are weighed at birth.This means that the prevalence rate could be higher than the current estimate. This stands to reason that the rate still indicates a public health problem (ACC/SCN, 2000). The factors observed to be  highly significantly associated with LBW included Antenatal Care (p-value =0.0010), Educational level (p-value =0.0011), Location (p-value =0.0011) and Economic status (p-value=<0.0001) as well as Central region (p-value= 0.0003). There is also risk for maternal age less than 24 and above 35 years (p-value=1.3409E-19 and 3.8257E-21 respectively), mothers who had given birth to more than four children (p-value=1.4519E-33) and women in Northen region (p-value= 0.0535 ). All other variables considered such as malaria in pregnancy, ethnicity, and marital status were not very significant (p-values > 0.05). In a nutshell, economic status, educational level, antenatal care and location are highly significantly risk factors associated with LBW in Ghana. Early/late maternal age and parity of more than four also showed some level of significance with LBW. Malaria in pregnancy, ethnicity, and marital status among others were however not significant. Keywords: Low birth weight, maternal factors, prevalence rate, risk factor

MODELLING STUDENT’S SATISFACTION WITH LIBRARY SERVICES IN A TERTIARY INSTITUTIONS: EVIDENCE FROM KUMASI POLYTECHNIC

An effective and efficient academic library system can significantly contribute to student and other user’s development in a wider perspective. This paper seeks to determine the satisfaction level of students with respect to the available reading materials and the services provided by the school library officials. Using a survey data obtained from students using the Kumasi Polytechnic library, the overall service satisfaction model was specified using ordinal logistic regression. Among the sampled students, 57%, 30.8%, 6.7% and 4.3% of them believes that the overall service quality is good, moderate, excellent and poor respectively. Also from the estimated model, the overall service quality decreases when students are less satisfied with the individual service components. In general, the estimated model suggest that among all the variables, availability of current and relevant materials; adequate user instructions; reliable internet facilities as well as friendly and helpful library staff are the first four (4) library service segments that highly influenced the students ratings for overall service quality. Keywords: Ghana, Kumasi Polytechnic, Library Services, Student Satisfaction, Ordinal logit model

PERCEPTIONS OF STUDENTS TOWARDS HIGHER NATIONAL DIPLOMA EDUCATION IN GHANA: A CASE STUDY OF KUMASI POLYTECHNIC

This paper investigates into perceptions towards HND education in Ghana. A structured questionnaire was designed as the main tool in soliciting student’s views across all faculties and the various departments respectively using simple random sampling technique. The ordinal logit model was applied to select significant factors that influenced student’s perceptions about the HND education. It was evident from the results that 52.5% s. disagree that their current programme of study offered them by Kumasi Polytechnic is their preferred programme whilst 41.1% also s. disagree the HND qualification is suitable to fill the middle level manpower gab of the Ghana economy. The survey further reveals that 37.9% agree that Kumasi Polytechnic provides the necessary logistics in enhancing vocational, technical & theoretical studies. However only about one in four students (26.2%) are satisfied with the general supervision of industrial attachment of the Polytechnic education AT Kumasi Polytechnic. Keywords: Ghana, Polytechnic, Ordinal, Perception, Satisfaction, Tertiary Educatio

Determinants of Antenatal Care Use in Ghana

The paper investigates the determinants of antenatal care use in Ghana. In particular, we study how economic factors affect the demand for antenatal care and the probability that the number of visits falls below the recommended number of four. Estimation results from a nested three-level multinomial logit model (care or no care; doctor or nurse or midwife; sufficient or insufficient visits) show that indeed living standard, cost of consultation and in particular travel distance to the provider have a significant impact on the demand and sufficiency of antenatal care. In addition, pregnant women with more schooling have a higher propensity to seek sufficient antenatal care from all providers, while women of higher parity tend to use less antenatal carefrom less expensive providers. These results suggest that adequate antenatal care use in Ghana can be promoted effectively by extending the supply of antenatal care services in the rural area, by general education policies and by specific policies that increase reproductive health knowledge. Furthermore, contrary to findings elsewhere, our estimates provide little support for a special targeting of antenatal care according to religious background. © Centre for the Study of African Economics 2004; all rights reserved