The nationwide field data collection for the 2022 Ghana Demographic and Health Survey (GDHS) has commenced, states the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS).
The exercisebeing undertaken in collaboration with the Ministry of Health/ Ghana Health Service and other partnersis is expected to last for 90 days.
In all, 37 teams made up of 37 supervisors, 37 male interviewers, 74 female interviewers and 74 biomarker technicians have been deployed for the nationwide exercise.
The trained field officers will visit an estimated 18,540 households from which 13,457 women aged 15-49 (in all households) and 5,752 men aged 15-59 (in selected households) will be targeted for interviews.
Additionally, children under 5 years in selected households will have their weight and height measured and be tested for malaria using rapid tests.
The GSS said salt testing for iodine concentration will also be carried out in the household.
The GDHS is a nationally representative survey that will collect data to support the monitoring of 44 Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) targets under SDGs 1 to 8, 10 and 16.
Key indicators to be generated from the GDHS include total fertility rate, child marriage, use of family planning; antenatal and delivery care during pregnancy; attitudes towards wife beating; intimate partner violence, nutritional status; anaemia; domestic violence; risky sexual behaviour; vaccination coverage; usage of treated mosquito bed nets; and household water, sanitation, and hygiene.
Ghana has implemented six rounds of the GDHS (1988, 1993, 1998, 2003, 2008, and 2014) which has produced data on maternal and child health, and healthcare utilisation to support the monitoring of policies and programmes and the development of annual plans in the health sector.
The GDHS programme is chaired by Dr. Kofi Issah, Director of the Family Health Division of the Ghana Health Service, and the Government Statistician Prof. Samuel Kobina Annim gave the keynote address highlighting the unique benefits of the GDHS and the depth of disaggregated data that would be generated from the survey to support research, policy and planning in the health and adjacent sectors.
The GSS therefore appealed to all the selected households to cooperate with the field officers for a successful exercise.