Correlates of child functional difficulties status in Ghana: A further analysis of the 2017/18 multiple indicator cluster survey

Abstract

Background Functional difficulties have long-term implications for children's physical, cognitive, emotional, social, and academic growth and development. Although the subject of functional difficulties has received enough scholarly attention in the developed world, few studies have addressed the issue in Ghana. Therefore, the study aimed to regress child, maternal and household and geographical level factors associated with the functional difficulty of children in Ghana. Method We analysed the 2017/18 multiple indicator cluster survey dataset. The study sample consists of weighted cases of 21,871 children within the ages of 5–17 years. Summary statistics were produced for the study variables. Bivariate analyses were performed to select significant correlates for the multivariate analysis. We accounted for sample design and weight before using Poisson regression techniques to do the bivariate and multivariate analysis. Results These factors were significantly associated with functional difficulties among 5–17 years old children in Ghana: not covered with health insurance, mothers who have a functional difficulty and those without information on their functional difficulty status, and children who dwelt in richer households compared to the richest households. Compared to the northern region, children from the remaining nine regions in Ghana were more likely to have had a child functional difficulty. Conclusion Given the results, the government of Ghana and other development partners should promote policies and programs to reduce the consequences of disability or functional difficulties in children by taking into consideration factors like mothers' functional difficulty, access to health insurance, and regional and economic disparities in Ghana.

Risk factors for early childhood disability in Bangladesh: Evidence from Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey 2019

“…These influences negative child health outcomes such as disability [ 2 ]. Many genetical studies support these results and they reported if a mother had functional difficulty their children were two times more likely to be disabled than those whose mothers didn’t have any difficulty [ 29 , 33 – 35 ]. Moreover, children with disable parents could experience some negligence because of their mother’s inability to take care of them; these social contexts may create childhood disability to some extent.…”

“…If a mother was dissatisfied, their children were more likely to be disabled than those whose mothers were satisfied in their life. Genetical studies support that mother’s depression can easily transmit to their children and that may cause behavioral problems among children [ 29 ]. Maternal unhappiness has an impact on maternal childcaring behavior.…”

“…Child-level factors including early childhood education, family level factor including mothers have functional difficulty and mother's overall life satisfaction and community level factors including accessed to internet and own a mobile phone. Different studies show that mother's functional difficulty, early education attendance, mothers life satisfaction and accessed internet are important factors for occurring early childhood disability [2,16,[27][28][29].…”

“…Moreover, children with disable parents could experience some negligence because of their mother's inability to take care of them; these social contexts may create childhood disability to some extent. It is urgent to collect data for family health history and free screening for all newborn babies to detect disability and for early intervention [29,[33][34][35].…”

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“…These influences negative child health outcomes such as disability [2]. Many genetical studies support these results and they reported if a mother had functional difficulty their children were two times more likely to be disabled than those whose mothers didn't have any difficulty [29,[33][34][35]. Moreover, children with disable parents could experience some negligence because of their mother's inability to take care of them; these social contexts may create childhood disability to some extent.…”