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. 2018 Apr 24;16(1):74.
doi: 10.1186/s12955-018-0894-y.

Women's health status in urban Ghana: dimensions and differentials using short form 36

Faustina Frempong-Ainguah  1   2 , Claire E Bailey  3 , Allan G Hill  3
Affiliations

Women's health status in urban Ghana: dimensions and differentials using short form 36

Faustina Frempong-Ainguah et al. Health Qual Life Outcomes. .

Abstract

Background: Global discourse on population, health and development have placed women's health issues at the top of development agenda. Women's reproductive health has received some attention in Ghana since the mid-1990s. However, studies on women's general health status, dimensions and the differentials in a rapidly growing urban setting is poorly understood and under-researched. This study sought to examine the various pathways in which individual socio-demographic factors, economic characteristics and endowment influence self-assessed health status among women living in the city of Accra, Ghana.

Methods: The paper draws on a cross-sectional study carried out in 2008 and 2009 using a representative sample of urban women 20 years and older (n = 2814). Multivariate stepwise linear regression models were performed to investigate the influence of socio-demographic, economic and health indicators on health-related quality of life, measured by eight sub-scales of the Short Form-36 (SF-36). Interaction effects between some demographic and socio-economic variables were also performed.

Results: The analyses show diverse relationships between demographic, socio-economic and health indicators and health outcomes assessed using eight SF-36 sub-scales. Education, disease symptoms and age of the respondent were the most significant factors influencing good overall health status. Interestingly, age has no significant effect on mental health after controlling for all other explanatory variables.

Conclusions: The findings show that health issues are multi-faceted requiring socio-cultural, health and economic policy interventions. Investing in women's education is important to improve health status. There is also the need for more effective collaboration across various sectors to improve the health and well-being of women in general. Ageing has increasing relationship with poor physical health status and the elderly should be given needed attention and support.

Keywords: Short Form-36 eight scales; Socio-demographic differentials; Women’s health.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing interest

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Ethics approval and consent to participate

Ethical approval for the study was granted by the ethical review board at the Noguchi Institute for Medical Research, University of Ghana and the Harvard School of Public Health Human Subjects committee. Additionally, consent to participate in the study was sought from the respondents.

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