Results From Ghana's 2016 Report Card on Physical Activity for Children and Youth.

BACKGROUND: Currently, there is limited evidence on estimates for physical activity (PA) behavior and sedentary behavior (SB) in Ghana. This report card (RC) is intended to increase awareness and sensitivity about issues surrounding PA and SB in Ghana. METHODS: Data were collected from peer-reviewed literature, graduate students' theses, physical education and sports documents, and a survey of opinions of stakeholders covering the 10 key RC indicators and benchmarks. The principal investigator harmonized all grades. A consensus meeting of the RC team was held to assign the final grades. RESULTS: School and Community grades declined from a D in 2014 to an F in 2016. SB declined from B to D. Family and Active Play were not graded in 2014 and now received an F and a B, respectively. Family and Built Environment were graded F, Active Transportation received a C, and Government and Overall PA were graded D. CONCLUSIONS: A conscious national investment effort can increase overall PA among children.

Profile of the Navrongo Health and Demographic Surveillance System.

Located in the Kassena-Nankana districts of northern Ghana, the Navrongo health and demographic surveillance system (NHDSS) was established in 1992 by the Navrongo health research centre (NHRC). The NHRC is one of three research centres of the Ghana health service. The activities and potential of the NHDSS for collaborative research are described. The NHDSS monitors health and demographic dynamics of the two Kassena-Nankana districts of northern Ghana and facilitates evaluation of the morbidity and mortality impact of health and social interventions. The total population currently under surveillance is 152 000 residing in 32 000 households. Events monitored routinely include pregnancies, births, morbidity, deaths, migration, marriages and vaccination coverage. Data updates are done every 4 months by trained fieldworkers. The NHRC also undertakes biomedical and socio-economic studies. Additional features of the NHDSS include the community key informant system where trained volunteers routinely report key events, such as births and deaths as they occur in their locality and the verbal autopsy (VA) system for determining the probable causes of deaths that occur at the community level. Data from the NHDSS are shared with funders and collaborators and partners in the INDEPTH Network. The Director of the NHDSS is the contact person for potential collaboration with the NHDSS and the use of its data.

The skilled attendance index: proposal for a new measure of skilled attendance at delivery.

Increasing the proportion of deliveries with skilled attendance is widely regarded as key to reducing maternal mortality and morbidity in developing countries. The percentage of deliveries with a health professional is commonly used to assess skilled attendance, but measures only the presence of an attendant, not the skills used or the enabling environment To supplement currently available information on the presence of an attendant at delivery, a method to measure the extent of skilled attendance at delivery through use of clinical records was devised. Data were collected from 416 delivery records in hospitals, government health centres and private non-hospital maternity facilities servicing Kintampo District, Ghana, using a case extraction form. Based on the defined criteria, summary measures of skilled attendance were calculated. Between 32.6% and 93.0% of the criteria for skilled attendance were met in the sample, with a mean of 65.5%. No delivery met all the criteria. A Skilled Attendance Index (SAI) was developed as a composite measure of delivery care. The SAI revealed that 26.9% of delivery records met at least three-quarters of the criteria for skilled attendance. Documentation of haemoglobin, current pregnancy complications, post-partum vital signs and completed partographs were amongst the criteria most poorly recorded. The purpose of applying these measures should be seen not as an end in itself but to advance improvements in delivery care.

The impact of the Navrongo Project on contraceptive knowledge and use, reproductive preferences, and fertility.

The Navrongo Community Health and Family Planning Project is a quasi-experimental study designed to test the hypothesis that introducing health and family planning services in a traditional African societal setting will introduce reproductive change. This article presents the impact of the initial three years of project exposure on contraceptive knowledge, awareness of supply sources, reproductive preferences, contraceptive use, and fertility. Findings show that knowledge of methods and supply sources increased as a result of exposure to project activities and that deployment of nurses to communities was associated with the emergence of preferences to limit childbearing. Fertility impact is evident in all treatment cells, most prominently in areas where nurse-outreach activities are combined with strategies for involving traditional leaders and male volunteers in promoting the program. In this combined cell, the initial three years of project exposure reduced the total fertility rate by one birth, comprising a 15 percent fertility decline relative to fertility levels in comparison communities.

Incidence and risk factors of paediatric rotavirus diarrhoea in northern Ghana.

We measured the type-specific incidence of paediatric rotavirus diarrhoea in an area of northern Ghana. Over 1 year, diarrhoea 1717 episodes were identified, of which 677 (39%) were positive for rotavirus. Risk factors for rotavirus infection included old age, wasting, high Vesikari score and the episode occurring in the dry season. Rotavirus-positive episodes tended to be more acute, causing vomiting and greater dehydration, and were more likely to require hospitalization. The incidence was 0.089 episodes per person-year for all diarrhoea, and 0.035 for rotavirus diarrhoea. The observed incidence decreased markedly with distance from the nearest health centre, suggesting a large unobserved burden. G2P[6], G3P[4] and G9P[8] made up more than half the genotypes detected, but the remainder were diverse. There is a large burden of rotavirus diarrhoea, but the effectiveness of future vaccines could be diluted by the high polymorphism of the virus, and the difficulty of reaching remote populations.