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List of research topics - Sissala Research Committee
- Last updated 2009
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1. Family Planning
- • Investigate the male role and its influence on the uptake of Family
Planning Services. (According to MICS 2006 91% of women in Upper
West Region who are either married or cohabiting do not use any
contraceptive method.)
• Elucidate utilisation-rate of family planning in the rural communities
•Uncover the perception of the usage of female/male condoms among
people in rural communities
•Interventions on teenage pregnancy and teenage pregnancy's effects on
girl child education?
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2. HIV&AIDS
- •The stigmatisation and Risk perception of HIV/AIDS and the influence on
this on HIV/AIDS control
•Study of the types of trauma associated with people living with HIV/AIDS
•Baseline study on prevalence of HIV&AIDS
•Knowledge, attitude and participation of people in the uptake of
Volunteering and counselling services (VCT).
•Baseline survey on the youth's sexual life style in relation to the spread
HIV/AIDS in the Sissala East District.
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3. Tuberculosis
- •Factors contributing to stigmatisation and risk perception of TB and its
effects on TB-control.
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4. Malaria
- •Utilisation of Insecticide Treated Bednets (ITNs): a study into the
knowledge, attitude and peoples perception of the use of ITNs in the
Sissala District
•The effectiveness of allowing Community Based Agents (CBAs) to
managing malaria with artesunate/amodiaquine prepacked tablets among
children under 5 years - compliance?
•Causes of low tolerance rate to Art./Amod. Therapy among adults with
malaria. (Most people resort to herbal medicine when they are given
Artesunate/Amodiquine therapy. This is a national issue.)
•Assessing the capacity of the sub-districts to diagnose Malaria. (At subdistrict
- level, the diagnosis of malaria is not confirmed by paraclinical
- methods, and treatment is given on low level of indications. What
- proportion of the cases treated as malaria at the subdistrict level can be
- paraclinically confirmed as malaria.)
- What is the incidence rate of malaria in people who use ITNs compared to those who do not?
• Assessing parental reaction patterns to fever in children and administration
of malaria treatment. (According to MICS 2006* children with fever in
Upper West Region are least likely to receive an appropriate anti-malaria
drug (40% compared to 70% in Upper East Region. What is the situation
in Sissala East District, what accounts for this difference and what are the
effects of it?)
5. Maternal and child mortality and morbidity
• Identify barriers to increasing the usage of SP among pregnant women in
rural areas
• Balanced local diet - the effect on the nutritional status of pregnant
women
• Nutritional knowledge among pregnant rural women.-
- Increased knowledge →healthier diet?, better nutritional status?
• How can the number of skilled/institutional deliveries be increased
- Why is the uptake of institutional deliveries so low when ANC
- coverage is fairly high?
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- What can be done to increase it?
• Survey on maternal mortality - are the statistics reflecting the true picture?
- Is there reason to believe otherwise?
- Is there a miss-match between the reported maternal mortality
- figures and results gathered by METHOD.
• Causes of low birth weight/preterm delivery among women in Sissala East - District.
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6. C-IMCI (Community-Integrated Management of Childhood Illnesses)
• The ability of community based agents (CBAs) to implement C-IMCI and
its impact on child survival.
i.Are the coverage areas adequate?
ii.Is a CBA able to cover the coverage area assigned to him?
iii.Is the CBA / population ratio to large/small?
iv.What is the quality of the diagnoses the CBA´s make?
v.Logistics - is the logistics system set up to support the CBAs
sufficient? Descriptive analysis of the logistical system and
suggestions towards improvement.
vi.CBA´s own perception on the implementation of IMCI?
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7. Nutrition
• Perception of women in exclusive breastfeeding among women with
children 0-6 months. (The number of women who practise exclusive
breastfeeding is very low (approx. 2% of all registered lactating mothers.
(2007 Sissala East District Health Administration half yearly report)
• The influence of traditional beliefs on exclusive breastfeeding
- • Baseline survey on the level of malnutrition among under fives ( - do the
figures captured by Ghana Health Service reflect the true situation in the
District? The level of malnourishment (21%) is measured amongst those
children who are included in growth monitoring. Only 27% of the targeted
number of children take part in growth monitoring).
• Contributory factors to protein energy malnutrition under the age of 5
years. (About 40% of children admitted in the pediatric ward in Tumu
District Hospital show various degrees of P.E.M. This means that many
children are dying of malnutrition.)
• Protein deficiency among under fives
i. What is the prevalence and level of protein deficiency of children
under five?
ii.How to improve protein nutritional status of the children?
• Asses the impact of the World Food Programme (WFP) on the nutritional
status of school children in Sissala East District.
• Asses the impact of balanced local diet - the effect on the nutritional
status of children under five?
• How can we prevent anaemia among children (6-24 months) in malaria
endemic rural areas?
• Market survey and study on the status of iodated salt in households.
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8. CHPS (Community Based Health Planning and Services)
• Comparative study on the role of Community Health and Planning
- Services (CHPS) in improving access to health service delivery
• The role of the District Assembly in expanding CHPS services
• The gaps to be filled for successful implementation of CHPS
• Assessment of knowledge, attitude and perception of communities in
CHPS activities
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9.National Health Insurance Scheme
• (A relatively high proportion (58%) of the estimated population in SED
have signed up for NHIS and there has been an increase of consultations at
subdistrict clinic level and at the hospital.)
• What role does poverty play in the non-patronage of the health insurance
scheme by the last 40% not signing up?
• Perception and participation of people from rural areas in the National
Health Insurance Scheme
• Client Satisfaction survey on Mutual Health Insurance
• Assessment of average cost of treatment of insured patients compared to
non-insured patients
• Attitude of health workers towards insured/non-insured patients and the
impact of this on health service delivery
• Who should be exempted from paying NHIS levy? Is the current - definition of indigent adequate? (By national decree 0,5 % of the
population can be exempted from paying the levy for the NHIS. The
national definition of indigent can be challenged, due to the traditional
social and family structure.) - • Prior to the introduction of NHIS many patients waited for a long time
before they would seek medical attention, because of the incurring costs
associated with this. Now with NHIS functioning, do patients present
themselves earlier and if so does this earlier treatment result in a lower
casualty rate?
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10. Integrated disease surveillance and response
• Effectiveness of Community Surveillance Volunteers/Traditional Birth
Attendants in improving Disease Surveillance and Response in the
Sissala District
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11. Quality Care and Health staff
• The role of the laboratory in providing quality health care
i. Quality of tests
ii.Procedures
iii. Lab capacity
iv.Personnel knowledgeable?
• The role of District Assembly in providing quality health care -
comparative study on various district Assembly's efforts on improving
health care.
• Client satisfaction of clinical care among government health institutions
• Factors affecting the effectiveness of the referrals system at SED-SD
• Assessment of the impact of NGOs activities to rural health care services
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12. EPI
•Effectiveness of cold chain management and the impact of this in
preventing childhood diseases
•How can EPI-coverage be improved
•Quality of EPI coverage.
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13. Health management information system (HMIS)
• The role of HMIS in delivering quality service delivery
i. Quality and validity of data extraction at sub-district and district
level
ii. Quality of data analysis at sub-district and district level.
iii. Timeliness and accuracy of data
• How can data collection, data quality and data management be improved
at all levels
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14. Habits, culture and lifestyles
• Health seeking behaviour in relation to sexual transmitted diseases
• Health seeking behaviour in relation to life style diseases (e.g. Diabetes,
hypertension)
• Baseline study on female genital mutilation (FGM)
• The influence of traditional believes on the utilisation/patronage of health
services
• Migration and its effects on the health of Sissalas
• Level of alcohol intake and its effects on the youth in the SED
• Are widowhood rites a threat to women's health?
• The impact of preventive health care on clinical health services
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15. Occupational health hazards
• Use of chemicals, pesticides etc.
• Health of people working at filling stations
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16. Environmental health and sanitation
• Cooking habits and connection to diarrhoea cases
i. Personal hygiene, cleaning of utensils, etc.
ii.Comparative analysis of households who have good sanitation
habits and those who do not. Is there a difference in diarrhoeal
cases?
iii. Assessing the impact of sanitation campaigns by health staff.
Health staffs try to influence the population to improve their
sanitation habits. Is it working?
• Toilet facilities
i. The majority of the population in UWR have no access to
improved sanitation facilities (MICS 2006). In some communities
in SED, donors have provided sanitation facilities. What is the
difference in the incidence of diseases associated with poor
sanitation in areas with access to improved sanitation facilities and
those without?
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17. Mental and psychical disabled people
• Peoples perception of mental and psychical disabled people
• The living-conditions of mental and psychical disabled people
*MICS 2006: Ghana Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey 2006, Preliminary Report.
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