BackgroundAdolescence is a critical stage in the life course and evidence suggests that even though contraceptive use has been steadily increasing among women in Ghana over the past years, contraceptive prevalence and determinants among female adolescents is quite lacking. This paper examines the prevalence and correlates of contraceptive use among female adolescents in Ghana.MethodsThe paper used data from the 2008 Ghana Demographic and Health survey. Bivariate analysis was carried out to determine the contraceptive prevalence among female adolescents while logistic regression analysis was applied to examine the correlates of female adolescent contraceptive use.ResultsThe study founded that female adolescent contraceptive use was significantly determined by age of adolescent, education, work status, knowledge of ovulatory cycle, visit of health facility and marital status.ConclusionsThis has implications for adolescent sexual and reproductive health programmes in Ghana. It is therefore essential to intensify girl child education and strengthen the provision of family planning information and services for female adolescents in the country.

Background. Unintended pregnancy is seen as the key concept for better understanding the fertility and the unmet need for family planning of populations. It is seen as a major challenge among women in many developing countries including Ghana. However, there is scarcely nationally representative information on its prevalence and predictors in Ghana. Methods. In a cross-sectional study design, data for this study were extracted from the 2014 Ghana Demographic and Health Survey. The prevalence of unintended pregnancies was computed, and logit regression models were fitted to predict the factors influencing unintended pregnancies in the country. Results. The total prevalence of unintended pregnancies among pregnant women in Ghana was found to be 40%. Background characteristics such as age (OR=4.85, CI=1.48-15.84), level of education (OR=0.50, CI=0.26-1.01), marital status (OR=3.83, CI=1.67-8.75), parity (OR=0.13, CI=0.05-0.32), and region of residence (OR=0.11, CI=0.03-0.31) were the significant predictors of unintended pregnancy, net of unmet need for contraception. However, unmet need for contraception (OR=7.13, CI=1.57-8.91) serves as an independently significant predictor of unintended pregnancy regardless of the background characteristics of respondents. Conclusions. The study findings strongly underscore the need for significant improvement in the access to contraception methods and family planning information in the quest to considerably reduce unintended pregnancies in the entire country.

Background. Malaria is an entrenched global health challenge particularly in the sub-Saharan African countries. However, in Ghana, little is known about the determinants of malaria prevalence among under-five children. As such, this study sought to examine the sociodemographic factors that determine malaria among under-five children in Ghana. Methods. This paper used secondary data drawn from the 2008 Ghana Demographic and Health Survey. Bivariate analysis and complementary log-log regression models were used to examine the determinants of malaria prevalence among under-five children in Ghana for the study period. Results. The results therefore revealed that region of residence, age of child, and ownership of mosquito net were the key predictors of malaria cases among under-five children in Ghana for the five-year period preceding the survey. Conclusion. It is therefore imperative that special education on prevention of malaria should be intensified by the National Malaria Control Programme in all the regions in order to reduce malaria prevalence particularly among under-five children in Ghana.

Background This study sought to explore the barriers to the uptake of cervical cancer screening and treatment in the North Tongu district of Ghana. Methods Twenty-five in-depth interviews were conducted, while three focus group discussions were held among respondents. The data were analysed with the R package for qualitative data analysis using a thematic analytical approach. Results Low level of knowledge about the disease and screening services, personal or psychological convictions, and cost of screening and treatment coupled with a low level of income were the barriers at the individual level. Perceived health personnel attitude, perceived lack of privacy, and misdiagnosis were the barriers at the institutional level while the sociocultural belief system of the communities about the etiology of the disease was the barrier at the community level. Inadequate education about the disease, lack of funding and access to screening facilities also constrained screening and treatment at the policy level. Conclusions Cervical cancer screening and treatment are constrained at multiple levels in rural Ghana. This study underscores the need to address the low uptake of cervical cancer screening and treatment at the individual, community, institutional, and policy levels simultaneously.

The literature on spatial patterns and contextual factors affecting modern contraceptive use is not well-documented in Ghana. This study describes the spatial variations and estimates the socioeconomic determinants of modern contraception among women in reproductive age in Ghana. Using data from the 2014 Ghana Demographic and Health Survey, both global and local Moran's I test were performed to show spatial autocorrelation and Bayesian multilevel models estimated to determine socioeconomic factors affecting modern contraceptive use. The results show evidence of low prevalence and spatial clustering of modern contraception use across the country. There were also notable regional disparities in contraceptive use that favour mostly the southern regions. Modern contraceptive use is significantly associated with socioeconomic factors such as educational attainment, work status, and marital status, as well as age, religious affiliation, and parity. Contextual factors such as the convenient location of health facility and family planning messages exposure also have a considerable positive effect on modern contraceptive use. Uneducated, unemployed and never-married women are considerably disadvantaged in the utilisation of modern contraception in Ghana. Socioeconomic and contextual factors play a key role in modern contraceptive use in Ghana.