Report on health situation in Volta Region

One out of every five children between the ages of and five in the Nkwanta District of the Volta Region is malnourished making stunted growth, a common affliction among children there.

A district health management team research report put general malnourishment among children in the district at about 50 per cent but said 30 per cent of the number were in the less severe category.

Miss Pamela Quaye, a Technical Officer of the Disease Health Management team, who presented the report at the final day of a five-day workshop at Ho on

Friday attributed the situation to ignorance and poverty among other problems.

The workshop was the second to be organised by the Volta Regional Health Directorate under its health systems research capacity building programme initiated by the health sector support office.

Miss Quaye said while 57 per cent of respondents in the 30 communities sampled said they could prepare Weanimix, a recommended balanced weaning food, some 84 per cent did not know the correct proportions of the components. She said families in the district were skimpy on food and also sold strategic food stock to cope with cost of living.

The research findings recommended intensified education in the use of local food for the preparation of balanced diets and also called on non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to support the health management team to reverse the trend.

All the six participating districts Nkwanta, Jasikan, Keta, Kete-Krachi, Kadjebi and North-Tongu, had met in January this year for a proposal development seminar at which each selected a priority area for enquiry. North-Tongu tackled low patronage of health care service at Mafi-Kumase. Health Centre and recommended the transfer of the Medical Assistant there.

Krachi researched into the late arrival of patients to the district hospital and suggested to communities to adopt measures to get patients most of whom were suffering from obstetric cases to the hospital early.

Keta district worked on late submission of returns from the sub-districts to the district directorate. The work revealed that non-availability of forms, unclear handwriting of doctors and the lack of funds affected report writing in the district.

Jasikan, which researched into level of acceptability of the scheme by the people, suggested that government and NGOs should support in building skills of managers of the schemes. Dr Nii Akwei Addo, the Acting Volta Regional Director of Health Services, said the health sector had moved away from "hunch to evidence based decision making."

He said research was crucial for health management, noting that where it was lacking and decisions were based on assumptions it often resulted in the selection of inappropriate lines of action.

In a speech read for him, Mr Steve Selormey, Regional Co-ordinating Director, said inadequacy of resources to facilitate health delivery system required the health management team to carry out research to determine appropriate options.

He noted that while all stages of research were important, data analysis was crucial. Mr Selormey said if data were collected but not correctly analysed, the result of research could be dangerous to apply, particularly in health related issues. He, therefore, cautioned researchers against allowing their emotions to influence their work.

Mr Selormey said: "There should be objectivity and a scientific approach to data analysis if we are to come out with dependable reliable and useful results." Twenty-Four participants from the six districts and some staff of the various divisions of the regional health directorate attended the workshop.