2008 GDHS report launched
Accra, Sept. 30, GNA – The Ghana Demographic and Health Survey (GDHS)
for the first time collected data on spousal violence and revealed that three in 10
women and one in four men were emotionally abused by their spouses or
partners.
One in every five women and one-in-ten men experienced physical violence
and the perpetrators of women who experienced violence were mainly husbands
or partners and the men were mainly by fellow men, the data indicated.
Chief Statistician Baah Wadieh disclosed this at the launch of the 2008 GDHS
report in Accra on Wednesday, and noted that GDHS was conducted every five
years since 1998, and the 2008 report was the fifth in the series.
The survey collected data on demographic and health information from
reproductive aged women and men in scientifically sampled households across
the country.
It also collected information on reproductive health, contraceptive use and
knowledge, fertility preferences, child mortality and reproductive history,
awareness and behaviour about HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted
infections.
Other areas include breastfeeding and infant feeding practice, vaccination and
childhood illness, child mortality, marriage and sexual activity, work, husband's
background characteristics, regenerative health and women's empowerment.
On child mortality, the Chief Statistician said mortality among children under five
declined substantially from 111 per 1,000 live births in 2003 to 80 per 1,000 in
2008, implying that currently, one in every 13 children die before reaching their fifth
birthday.
The mortality rate for children under five years has been on the decline from
155 according to 1998 GDHS, while the infant mortality rate has also declined
from 67 to 50 per 1,000.
The 2008 GDHS report showed that vaccination coverage had increased for
children aged 12 to 23 months, but two out of ten of these children were still not
receiving the full vaccination, and there had also been only slight improvement in
the nutrition of babies: six–in-ten children less than six months were exclusively
breastfed.
It revealed that the use of modern methods of family contraceptives among
married women had generally increased over the years with a slight decline from
19 to 17 per cent and the proportion of women who used any method of
contraceptives almost doubled from 13 to 24 per cent over the past 20 years, and
those who used modern methods increased from five per cent in 1998 survey to
17 per cent in the 2008 survey.
The total fertility rate indicated the number of children a woman was expected to
have during the reproductive period was 4.0 births per woman in the 2008 report
compared to 6.4 in the 1998 GDHS.
The total fertility rate in Ghana was currently the lowest in sub-Saharan Africa,
the report said. Total fertility rate was higher among rural women at 4.9 children per
woman whiles that of urban women was 3.1 and the rate declined with increasing
education of women.
It pegged women with secondary and higher education as having an average of
2.1 children and six for women with no education.
On HIV/AIDS, the report said the pandemic continued to devastate families and
communities although the knowledge of AIDS was assessed to be high among
women and men; and with respect to mother-to-child transmission 85 per cent of
women and 78 per cent of men knew that it could be transmitted through
breastfeeding.
Thirty-five per cent of men and 18 per cent of women drank alcoholic
beverages and six per cent of men used tobacco.
Dr Ben Kumbour, Deputy Minister of Health in a speech read for him, said the
report had brought to the fore information that could guide policy formulation,
implementation, monitoring and evaluation.
“It is a report that is worth utilizing, and I highly appreciate the efforts made to
publish it 10 months after the main field work,” he said.
GNA