Background. Child mortality is a global health problem. The United Nations’ 2018 report on levels and trends on child mortality indicated that under-five mortality is one of the major public health problems in Ghana with a rate of 60 deaths per 1000 live births. To further mitigate this problem, it is important to identify the drivers of under-five mortality in order to achieve the United Nations SDG Goal 3 target 2. Methods. In this study, we investigated the effects of some selected risk factors on child mortality using data from the 2014 Ghana Demographic Health Survey. We modelled the relationship between child mortality and the risk factors using a logistic regression model under the frequentist and Bayesian frameworks. We used the Metropolis-Hastings Algorithm to simulate parameter estimates from the posterior distributions, and statistical analyses were carried out using STATA version 14.1. Results. Results from the frequentist framework are in line with those from the Bayesian framework. The results showed an increased risk of death among children who were delivered through caesarean and reduced relative odds of death among children whose sizes are average or large at birth and whose mothers have formal education. Conclusions. There is a need for improved health facilities for better health-care for mothers and children. Education should, among other things, emphasise on the need for mothers to go for regular check-ups during antinatal and postnatal periods for improved mother and child health.

Knowledge on individual's HIV/AIDS status provides a tool to reduce or avoid HIV transmission, spread and mortalities due to HIV-related illness. However, most people still do not know their HIV status because they are not willing to test for HIV/AIDS due to various reasons. Hence the aim of this paper is to investigate the effects of various risk factors that are likely to influence decision to ever test for HIV/AIDS. The data used in this paper were obtained from the Ghana Demographic and Health Survey (n = 1828 observations and 32 risk factors). We applied the Chi-Square test statistic and the logistic regression model to the data in order to study the effects of these risk factors on one's decision to ever test for HIV. STATA version 14.1 and R version 3.5.2 were used to carry out the statistical analyses. Generally, the results show that education, especially higher education significantly (OR = 0.53, 95% = 0.230, 0.837) increases the likelihood to ever test for HIV. Also, the younger the age groups the higher the effect and significance in the likelihood to ever test for HIV. We found that HIV-TB co-infection (OR = 0.53, 95% = 0.165, 0.893), use of condom anytime one has sex (OR = 0.31, 95% = 0.054, 0.573), wealth index (OR = 0.46, 95% = 0.137, 0.791), awareness of HIV transmission during child-delivery, number of partners significantly affect HIV testing. Those with many partners are less likely (OR = −0.26, 95% = −0.504, −0.007) to ever test for HIV and those who know that healthy person may have HIV are more likely (OR = 0.41, 95% = 0.137, 0.679) to ever test for HIV. Age is the common significant risk factor of ever tested for HIV across the 10 regions in Ghana. Resources should be allocated for more education on these significant risk factors in order to help in the fight against HIV-Health related issues.

Background. One of the major aims of marriage is to procreate or give birth to a child. Childbirth is so crucial in marriage that it often determines the happiness of the couple. Too much delay in childbirth after marriage or the likelihood that one cannot give birth after marriage can lead to divorce. However, causes of delay in childbirth are often difficult to detect by both the Gynaecologist and the couple involved. This makes proposing solutions to issues related to childbirth usually unsuccessful. Methods. It is against this background that we conducted this study to identify factors that determine childbirth within 10 months or after 10 months of marriage (birth length) among women in Ghana. This was achieved by using a logistic regression model for the dichotomous birth length variable, adjusting for risk factors/predictors of birth length. The data used for the study were obtained from the 2014 Ghana Demographic and Health Survey, consisting 6,525 complete cases with 18 predictor variables. Statistical analyses were carried out using STATA version 14.1. Results. The results show that respondents who have ever terminated pregnancy are more likely (OR=0.178, 95%CI=0.044, 0.312) to deliver after 10 months, wives whose husbands have higher education are less likely (OR=‐0.162, 95%CI=‐0.236, ‐0.088) to give birth after 10 months of marriage, wives who reported that beating is justified if she goes out without her husband’s notice are more likely (OR=0.466, 95%CI=0.305, 0.628) to give birth after 10 months, wives who reported that beating is justified if she neglects the child are more likely (OR=‐0.305, 95%CI=‐0.461, ‐0.149) to give birth within 10 months, and wives who reported that beating is justified when she argues with her husband are less likely (OR=‐0.301, 95%CI=‐0.451, ‐0.152) to give birth after 10 months of marriage. Every unit increase in the age of the respondent at marriage increases the likelihood of giving birth after 10 months of marriage, and a unit increase in the age of the respondent at first sex decreases the likelihood of giving birth after 10 months in marriage. Conclusions. For conception within 1 month of marriage, wives and husbands should/are encouraged to have frequent sex, any negative social behaviour or policies must be discouraged, experts’ advice on contraceptive use must be sought, and women are encouraged to desist from termination of pregnancy at any time of their life. Husbands should openly express their desire and love for their children since this increases the likelihood of wives’ desire to give birth. This leads to frequent sex, which then reduces conception time, and hence childbirth within the shortest possible time.

In this paper we proposed three estimators namely linear shrinkage, preliminary test and shrinkage preliminary test for the rate parameter of univariate gamma. The salient feature of the proposed estimators is the admissibility property that is defined on belief of the uncertain prior information. Expressions for bias and relative efficiency under method of moment have been derived using asymptotic theory. A Monte Carlo simulation study shows that the proposed estimators are more efficient and minimally biased when prior information is close to the neighbourhood of the rate parameter.

Background: The number of Tuberculosis (TB) cases or deaths is declining, however, the rate of decline is not adequate to meet the World Health Organization's (WHO's) mitigation. TB remains a public health problem in Ghana with a significant economic and health burden on its citizens and health care system.  Consequently, there is a need for further studies about the disease aimed at accelerating the rate of decline in cases. Methods:  The spatio-temporal characteristics of TB in Ghana using Bayesian spatial and spatio-temporal regression models was analysed in this study. Data were obtained from Ghana National Tuberculosis Programme (NTP) for the 10 regions of Ghana, collected over a six-year period. The study also examines some baseline predictors of TB infections to ascertain their effects on the TB risk across the ten regions in Ghana. Results: Hot-spots of TB cases are observed in the Upper East, Upper West, Volta, Western, and Central regions and low risk in the Northern, Ashanti, Greater Accra, Brong Ahafo, Eastern and Western regions. The results indicated a clustering of risk between neighboring regions. TB cure rate, TB success rate, knowledge about TB, awareness that TB is airborne, HIV prevalence, percentage of literacy, and high income are important predictors of  detection for this disease across the ten regions of Ghana. Conclusion: Most regions in Ghana have similar TB risks. A substantial reduction in TB cases  requires measures that will increase  detection, success and cure rates, awareness, knowledge about how this disease spreads as well adequate health facilities with easy access.