Summary This study examined the moderating influences of active social networks (ASN), sedentary social networks (SSN) and ASN lost on the relationship between neighbourhood walkability and social activity in community-dwelling older adults aged 60 years or more in Accra, Ghana. A total of 863 individuals participated after G*Power 3.1 was utilized to calculate the minimum sample size. We analysed the data with Pearson’s correlation test and hierarchical linear regression models. A sensitivity analysis was conducted to select the ultimate confounding variables. The study found a positive influence of neighbourhood walkability on social activity after the covariate adjustment (β = 0.18; t = 5.2; p = 0.000). The positive influence of neighbourhood walkability on social activity was significantly reduced by ASN lost and SSN. ASN did not have a significant moderating influence on the primary relationship. The study concludes that the positive influence of walkable neighbourhoods on social activity decreases as SSN and ASN lost increase.

Background: Over the last two years, the world has been experiencing a worldwide health catastrophe. The Corona Virus (COVID-19) struck at the heart of societies and is a major health-care infrastructure problem. Infrastructure has been characterised as the basic requirement for carrying out productive and relevant public health actions. Mortality has direct and indirect relationship, with the former causing short and long-term mortality, resulting in a short life expectancy. Reduced accessibility and quality of health care, isolation, loneliness, and poverty were some of the indirect repercussions. The outcomes were sad and deeply felt when the two collided with ageing and persons with co-morbidities. The fertility effect of COVID-19 in the short-term on contraception presented itself in increased difficulties in accessing services and disruptions in the supply chain. Migration was mainly affected due to travel bans and restriction of movements through stay-at-home instructions. Methods: This paper uses the qualitative paradigm of research that used corpus construction in the selection of material to represent a whole and this make it functionally equivalent to sampling but structurally different. It used secondary data to ascertain the demographic effects and the extent of health infrastructure deficit and ingenious ways to curb the challenges as exposed by the COVID -19. Results: The study underscores how demographic factors can be disrupted by pandemics to bring about high rates of mortality. Global health function is under-funded and under-produced, as a study by the World Health Organization suggests. Conclusions:  The study brings to bear that anthropogenic activities, air greenhouse gases, lifespan and hospital beds are key drivers of COVID-19 growth. The path forward to mitigate such pandemics is international harmony and alliances in the distribution of vaccines, strengthening of international health systems ability to hold back major infectious disease, addressing service quality and providing key financial injection.

Generally, men in sub-Saharan Africa make reproductive decisions that affect their partners. We examined the predictors of fertility desires among married men across three age cohorts: 20–35 years, 36–50 year, and 51–59 years. Using the 2014 Ghana Demographic and Health Survey dataset, we conducted ANOVA and multivariate binary logistic regressions on 1431 monogamous married men aged 20–59 years. Two indicators of fertility desire are constructed: (i) the comparison of men’s ideal versus women’s ideal family size, and (ii) the desire for more children. The results indicate that the fertility desire of men is stronger than that of women. The predictors of fertility desire are age, parity, religion, contraceptive use, wealth quintile, couples’ age difference and couples’ difference in education. At ages 20–35 years, men using modern contraceptives were more likely to desire more children compared with those not using any modern contraceptives. However, at ages 36–50 years, men using modern contraceptives were less likely to desire more children. This finding suggests that men change their fertility desires in response to changes in their ages.

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