Household Health Status Research Articles

The Nexus between Citizen Participation and Engagement in Elections and Development in Ghana: Empirical Evidence from Voters in Four Electorally-Swing Constituencies in Ghana

The Nexus between Citizen Participation and Engagement in Elections and Development in Ghana: Empirical Evidence from Voters in Four Electorally-Swing Constituencies in Ghana
 *Gbensuglo Alidu Bukari 
 Department of Political Science
 University for Development Studies, Tamale-Ghana
 E-mail: gbukari@uds.edu.gh
 
 Eliasu Mumuni
 Department of Communication, Innovation and Technology
 University for Development Studies, Tamale-Ghana
 Email: meliasu@uds.edu.gh
 
 Adam Osman Oscar
 Department of Logistics and Procurement Management
 Tamale Technical University, Tamale-Ghana
 oadamosman@tatu.edu.gh
 
 Abstract
 This paper establishes the relationship between individual citizens' voting participation in national elections and their felt socio-economic outcomes in Ghana. The paper adopts a micro-level approach and utilises data from a random sample of 600 respondents in four electorally-swing constituencies. The aim is to ascertain their views on a range of socio-economic issues related to elections and felt individual and community outcomes. The analysis of the results was conducted using standard multi-regression. The results of the analysis established that the relationship between individual and household economic welfare related to personal income, employment opportunities, personal and household educational opportunities and personal and household health status and voting participation is varied. The conclusion is that the unique circumstances of voter participation and choice in an election in the electorally-swing constituencies in the country are contingent on superior socio-economic policies of an incumbent government or political parties in electoral competition with the aspiration to win political power and dominance in a future electoral contest in Ghana. Therefore, based on the results, the enhancement of democracy through active participation in the political and electoral processes should place a premium on inclusive access of citizens to income, health, education and employment opportunities.
 Keywords: elections, democracy, participation, engagement, development, voting behaviour, Ghana

Pengaruh Faktor Demografi dan Sosial Ekonomi Terhadap Status Kesehatan Individu di Sumatera Barat

The study that the researchers conducted aims to make the general public know and be able to analyze the consequences of changes / emergence of the dependent variable or dependent variable. And the independent variables are education level (X1), income (X2), age (X3 gender (X4) marital status (X5) Demographics (X6) and the dependent variable is health status in West Sumatra Province (Y). Types of This research is a descriptive and inductive research.The data is secondary data taken from SUSENAS in 2022. The results of this study show that: 1) Education (X1) has a negative and insignificant relationship to individual health status.2) Income (X2) Has a negative and insignificant relationship to the health status of individual households. 3) Age (X3) has a positive and significant relationship to the health status of individual households. 4) Gender (X4) has a positive and significant relationship to the health status of individual households. 5) Marital status (X5) is not significant on individual household health status and has a negative relationship. 6) Region (X6) has a negative and significant relationship to the health status of individual households.

WASTE DISPOSAL METHODS AND HEALTH STATUS OF HOUSEHOLDS IN UYO LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA IN POST COVID-19 ERA

The study investigated Waste Disposal Methods and Health Status of Households in Uyo Local GovernmentArea in Post Covid-19 Era. Three research questions were raised to guide the study. Descriptive surveyresearch design was adopted in the study. The population comprised of 1,265,000 people made up of allresidents in Uyo Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State. A sample size of 400 respondents was drawnusing Taro Yamane sampling formula and used to collect data for the study. Stratified and simple randomsampling techniques were employed to select the respondents. A structured questionnaire titled: WasteDisposal Methods and Health Status of Households Questionnaire (WDMHSHQ) was used for datacollection. The content of the instrument was validated by three experts in cognate disciplines all inUniversity of Uyo. Cronbach Alpha statistical analysis was used to determine the internal consistency of theinstrument and the analysis yielded a reliability coefficient of 0.79. Data collected was analysed using Meanand Standard Deviation. Findings revealed that burning of wastes (cluster mean = 3. 49), dumping of wastes(cluster mean = 3.50) and compost wastes (cluster mean = 3.38) all had negative effect on the health statusof households in Uyo Local Government Area in the Post Covid-19 Era with varying cluster mean valuesand standard deviation. Based on the findings, the researchers conclude that waste disposal methods havenegative effect on health status of households in Uyo Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State in the postcovid-19 Era and therefore recommend amongst others that households should engage more in the compostwastes disposal method as it has less negative effect on the health status of households in the study area

Intervention uncertainty, household health, and pandemic

This study builds a policy choice model wherein household health status responds to the lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic. Considering an exogenous policy-decision date, the model implies that the government should maintain the current policy if the perceived effects on infection are below a certain threshold. Specifically, the threshold is determined by policy uncertainty and household concerns regarding health service provision, which further controls the announcement effects of the lockdown. Higher policy uncertainty and concerns regarding health services will diminish the positive impact of the lockdown on household health status.

Causal Modeling to Mitigate Selection Bias and Unmeasured Confounding in Internet-Based Epidemiology of COVID-19: Model Development and Validation.

BackgroundSelection bias and unmeasured confounding are fundamental problems in epidemiology that threaten study internal and external validity. These phenomena are particularly dangerous in internet-based public health surveillance, where traditional mitigation and adjustment methods are inapplicable, unavailable, or out of date. Recent theoretical advances in causal modeling can mitigate these threats, but these innovations have not been widely deployed in the epidemiological community.ObjectiveThe purpose of our paper is to demonstrate the practical utility of causal modeling to both detect unmeasured confounding and selection bias and guide model selection to minimize bias. We implemented this approach in an applied epidemiological study of the COVID-19 cumulative infection rate in the New York City (NYC) spring 2020 epidemic.MethodsWe collected primary data from Qualtrics surveys of Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) crowd workers residing in New Jersey and New York State across 2 sampling periods: April 11-14 and May 8-11, 2020. The surveys queried the subjects on household health status and demographic characteristics. We constructed a set of possible causal models of household infection and survey selection mechanisms and ranked them by compatibility with the collected survey data. The most compatible causal model was then used to estimate the cumulative infection rate in each survey period.ResultsThere were 527 and 513 responses collected for the 2 periods, respectively. Response demographics were highly skewed toward a younger age in both survey periods. Despite the extremely strong relationship between age and COVID-19 symptoms, we recovered minimally biased estimates of the cumulative infection rate using only primary data and the most compatible causal model, with a relative bias of +3.8% and –1.9% from the reported cumulative infection rate for the first and second survey periods, respectively.ConclusionsWe successfully recovered accurate estimates of the cumulative infection rate from an internet-based crowdsourced sample despite considerable selection bias and unmeasured confounding in the primary data. This implementation demonstrates how simple applications of structural causal modeling can be effectively used to determine falsifiable model conditions, detect selection bias and confounding factors, and minimize estimate bias through model selection in a novel epidemiological context. As the disease and social dynamics of COVID-19 continue to evolve, public health surveillance protocols must continue to adapt; the emergence of Omicron variants and shift to at-home testing as recent challenges. Rigorous and transparent methods to develop, deploy, and diagnosis adapted surveillance protocols will be critical to their success.

Determinants of Small-Scale Irrigation Use for Poverty Reduction: The Case of Offa Woreda, Wolaita Zone, Southern Ethiopia

Small-scale irrigation is one of the agricultural activities used by rural farmers to improve the overall livelihood of the rural community by increasing income, securing food, meeting social requirements, and reducing poverty. The main objective of this study was to look into the factors that influence small-scale irrigation for poverty reduction among small-holder farmers in the Offa Woreda, Wolaita Zone. Government and nongovernmental organizations supplied small-scale irrigation and training to small-holder farmers in the study area at various times; however, the key determinants impacting small-scale irrigation use were not fully identified in the study area. The study location was chosen for this study purpose because no prior in-depth research had been conducted. Simple random sampling was used to select the three kebeles for the study. A total of 134 people were included in the study sample frame. The sample was chosen using simple random sampling and the proportional probability-to-size (pps) method, which was proportional to the size and used multistage sampling procedure. The primary data were collected using the interview schedule. Both quantitative and qualitative data were analyzed using descriptive and econometric analyzes in SPSS version 21. Qualitative data were also collected through focus groups and key informant interviews. A factor that influences small-scale irrigation use was investigated using a binary logistic regression model. The binary logistic regression model revealed that both the irrigation participants (37.3%) and the nonparticipant (62.7%) families had a combination of personal and demographic, economic, institutional, and social influencing factors that hinder their likelihood of using irrigation. HH age, annual income of the household, distance from the closest farm sight, farm experience, participation in training, access to irrigation, and sex of HH were positively and significantly influencing factors in the model, while total ownership of livestock of households and health status of households were negatively significant variables. As a result, the Agricultural and Natural Resources Development Office, as well as the Water Mining and Energy Offices, should devote scientific attention to the significant factors that influence irrigation use to boost farm family production and productivity.

Determinants of Household Healthcare Choice Behavior: A Study in Purulia District, West Bengal

A well organised healthcare system is one of the pillars of a society’s social and economic infrastructure. Efficient healthcare system is one of the important indicators of development. In times of global epidemics Covid-19 healthcare seeking behaviour has become an important issue. People adjust their treatment modalities based on the health system. Poor families in particular have very limited access to medical care; they usually rely on government medical facilities because they cannot afford private treatment. On the other hand, even in rural areas, access to medical care limited due to lack of additional healthcare facilities. Therefore in rural area’s it is very important to diagnose the factors that influence the health seeking behaviour of the household. The Specific objectives of the study are to investigate health status of households across Purulia district using secondary data from NFHS- 4 (2015-2016) and to determine the factors that influencing health seeking behaviour of the sample households. We have visited randomly selected three villages of Kashipur block in Purulia district, West Bengal and surveyed two hundred households. To determine the factors that influencing household healthcare seeking behaviour we have fitted logit model. The explanatory variables monthly average family income, household head’s education, number of members in a household above 60 years, number of members in a household below 6 years, having at least one member who consume medicines during the whole year, effect of Covid-19 on income, effect of Covid-19 on health, social category, village residence have positive significant impact on the probability of household members seeking treatment from both government and private places. We consider ST as our base and find that the general community has significant impact on the household members receiving treatment from both government and private places. From the result we find that the major source of income of the sample households has no significant impact on the healthcare seeking behaviour of sample households.

Willingness to pay for community based health insurance scheme and factors associated with it among households in rural community of South West Shoa Zone, Ethiopia

BackgroundOut-of-pocket payments are the major significant barrier in achieving universal health coverage, particularly in developing countries' rural communities. In 2011, the Ethiopian government launched a pilot community-based health insurance (CBHI) scheme with the goal of increasing access to modern health care services and providing financial security to households in the informal sector and rural areas. The main objective of this study is to estimate willingness to pay (WTP) for CBHI scheme and factors that influence it among rural households in the South West Shoa Zone.MethodsA household-level cross-sectional study was conducted to examine the WTP for the CBHI scheme and factors associated with it in rural communities of South West Shoa Zone. The study used a sample of 400 rural households. Systematic random sampling was employed during household selection, and double-bounded contingent valuation method was used to estimate WTP for the CBHI scheme.ResultsAbout 65 percent of the households are willing to pay for CBHI scheme. Moreover, the study found that the households were willing to pay 255.55 Birr per year on average. The result of the study also revealed that amount of bid, household income, family size, household head's education, household health status, membership to community-based health insurance scheme, membership in any association, and awareness about the scheme are factors that are significantly associated with WTP for the scheme.ConclusionsHouseholds are willing to pay a higher price than the policy price. Therefore, setting a new premium that reflects households' willingness to pay is highly valuable to policymakers. Social capital and awareness about CBHI scheme play an important role in influencing WTP. Thus, the study suggests that local communities need to strengthen their social cohesion and solidarity. It is also necessary to create awareness about the CBHI’s benefits.

Testing the Role of Waste Management and Environmental Quality on Health Indicators Using Structural Equation Modeling in Pakistan.

Improper management of municipal waste has become a growing concern globally due to its impact on the environment, health, and overall living conditions of households in cities. Waste production has increased because households do not adopt waste management practices that ensure sustainability. Previous studies on household waste management often considered socio-economic aspects and overlooked the environmental and behavioral factors influencing the disposal practices and health status. This study adopted four constructs, defensive attitude, environmental knowledge, environmental quality, and waste disposal, by employing a structural equation modeling approach to explore research objectives. Data from 849 households of the Islamabad-Rawalpindi metropolitan was collected by using a multi-stage sampling technique. The structural model results showed that the two constructs, environmental knowledge and defensive behavior, positively affect household health status. The most significant health-related considerations are waste disposal and environmental quality, both of which negatively impact health status and do not support our hypothesis. The results provide valuable perspectives to enable households to engage actively in waste management activities. The findings indicate that understanding the intentions of household health status drivers can assist policymakers and agencies in promoting an efficient and successful community programmes related to sustainable solid waste management by allowing them to foster how the desired behavior can be achieved.

Determinants of Urban Poverty in Oromia: A Case Study in Some Selected District, Ethiopia

The study was conducted in south west Shewa zone districts, Oromia National Region, Ethiopia. Stratified sampling techniques were applied in order to obtain a representative sample were selected to collect data by using these strata since in study there were constituted 3 urban areas were selected from a total of 4 towns in Waliso districts. Based on this condition sampling will be conducted separately in each subgroup or stratum. Descriptive statistics and binary logit were employed to determine factors that influence the economic status of households. A sum of twelve explanatory variables for the binary logit model was used, out of which eight variables were found to significantly affect the economic returns of households at 5%. These are: household family size, education of household head, the gender of household head, marital status, age of household head, , income of household head, house ownership, previous residence, and four of the following were at 10% like household health status, household head occupation, dependency ratio and saving of household and the other variables like household health status, household head occupation, and dependency ratio were not significant at a maximum of 10% significance level . The study recommends that the strong negative relationship between income and the probability of being poor point out that there must be a need to consider households income character by government and non-government organization in designing policies targeted to curb urban poverty intervening to household health status, household head occupation, dependency ratio and saving of household. Keywords: Rural poverty, Binary Logit Model, Waliso district. DOI: 10.7176/JPID/56-03 Publication date: November 30 th 2020

Willingness to Participate and Pay into a Community- Based Health Insurance Scheme in Imesi-Ile, a Rural Community in Osun State, Nigeria

Aims: Rural dwellers are forced into a vicious circle of lack of financial risk protection to accessing non-optimal care and more poverty from its complications because out-of-pocket payment is their mainstay health care financing option. A sustainable and effective Community-based health insurance scheme will offer some respite. The study aimed to determine household heads’ willingness to participate and pay into a community-based health insurance scheme and the associated factors.
 Study Design: Descriptive cross-sectional.
 Place and Duration of Study: Imesi-Ile, a rural community in Obokun Local government area of Osun state, Nigeria between July and September, 2015.
 Methods: Study population were 147 of the 155 household heads selected via a multi-stage sampling technique. Quantitative data collection was done using a structured questionnaire. The household health status, level of trust and reciprocity in the community, their awareness of a community-based health insurance scheme and their willingness to participate and pay into it using the double contingent valuation method were assessed. Data was analysed using the IBM SPSS version 20 software and statistical significance determined at p<0.05.
 Results: There was a low level of awareness (13.6%), but majority (87.1%) were willing to participate after being informed. Only 54(42.2%) were willing to pay ₦12,000 ($33.3). The maximum amount they were willing to pay was ₦6000 ($16.7). Younger household heads (p=0.009), males (p=0.032), earning ≥₦6000 ($16.7) monthly (p=0.006), and involved in cooperative schemes (p=0.002) were significantly more willing to participate in the scheme. While the sex of the household heads (p=0.006) and mean score on reciprocity (p=0.002) were significantly associated with paying ₦12,000 ($33.3) as premium for a household of 6 persons. The preferred frequency of payment was monthly (53.8%). 
 Conclusion: The household heads in Imesi-Ile community were willing to participate and pay into the scheme. However, further studies on the feasibility and sustainability of implementation is advised.

Clean versus dirty energy: Empirical evidence from fuel adoption and usage by households in Ghana

There are few studies on the determinants of energy consumption of households in Africa, particularly in Ghana. Thus, this study identifies the drivers of households’ fuel consumption for domestic purposes and examines two fuel categories (‘clean’ fuels versus ‘dirty’ fuels). The study used Demographic and Health Survey data that has a sample of 11,835 households across Ghana. Binary categorical models (binary logistic and binary probit) were used to investigate whether a household uses ‘clean fuel’ or ‘dirty fuel’, which are estimated with socio-economic variables and spatial disparity (regional location). The results suggest that households’ energy consumption is affected by socio-economic variables and rural households are more deprived than urban households in adopting clean fuels. Also, male-headed households have a higher likelihood than female-headed households to adopt clean fuels. Many households choose clean fuels for lighting than they do for cooking as wealth status improves. However, solid fuels such as charcoal and firewood remain the dominant fuel used for cooking by the majority of households. The use of these dirty fuels could hamper the health status of households because of indoor pollution. The study recommends that policies should be geared towards the provision of clean and better energy sources for households.

Impact of Education on Poverty and Health : Evidence from Indonesia

As a classical problem, governments in developing countries should pay more attention to poverty, its determiners, and its impact. Based on several previous studies, there is a strong relationship between poverty, education, and health status. This study aims to scrutinize the relationship between education, health, and poverty and the way they affect each other to make the priority scale in efforts to reduce poverty. Therefore, to measure the relationship between them, monetary and non-monetary models are used. By using 2SLS regression for monetary models and logistic regression for non-monetary models, it is found that education significantly affects the wealth status of household and health. In disaggregated form, the return from tertiary education have significantly higher than the return from primary and secondary levels. Other control variables such as age, gender, number of children, and residential, also have significant impacts on poverty and household health status. Based on those results, the government should enhance and intensify several programs such Program Indonesia Pintar (PIP), Bidikmisi, inclusive work environment, wage equality, PKK, and GERMAS to eradicate poverty and elevate the public’s health status through education and other supporting factors.

Research of energy behaviour and energy poverty of households in Northern Greece

The present paper examines the phenomenon of energy poverty in Greece. Specifically, energy poverty concerns a growing number of households that have limited access to energy or are unable to pay for this energy, mainly due to insufficient thermal insulation, low income and high energy costs. The continuing economic crisis in Greece has increased the rate of energy poverty as incomes have fallen, the price of oil and PPC tariffs have risen, more households are asked to pay more than 20% of their energy bill income. Excessive energy poverty in turn has an impact on the environment (illegal logging, smog, etc.), but also to the physical and mental health of people exposed to it. The paper includes a case study which provides information and data collected from a sample of 384 households using the questionnaire method in four areas of northern Greece, which is the Edessa area in Central Macedonia, the area of Drama in Eastern Macedonia, the area of Xanthi and the Municipality of Myki (Pomakohoria) in Thrace. Initially, personal data, housing characteristics and household health status are presented. The types of heating system of the examined households and the extent to which they meet the required levels of thermal comfort are presented below. In addition, the aforementioned data is associated with the energy accounts. The findings, show that energy poverty has affected a significant proportion of households in Greece. This is due to the fact that there are households that do not meet the energy needs of their home.

The role of health, experience, and educational attainment in agricultural production: Evidence from smallholders in Burkina Faso

AbstractWe apply parametric and nonparametric methods to data from smallholders in Burkina Faso and assess the role that human capital characteristics play in the agricultural production process. Our results point to the technology‐changing nature of health, education, and experience. However, effects are rather heterogeneous. The productivity elasticity of health is much larger for households in the lowest landholding quintiles, while returns to experience are larger for households in the upper quintile. In terms of policy implications, our results suggest that productivity can be stimulated through the allocation of expenditure to social services that enhance certain types of human capital. Interventions aimed at improving the health status of households with smaller landholdings could have particularly strong welfare effects.

Image of Health house in Indonesia Based on Susenas 2017

Houses are a primary need for humans. The need for houses that meet healthy requirements is very important in order to improve household health status and prevent disease. The parameters of a healthy house have been regulated by a law issued by the Ministry of Health where there are 17 parameters that must be met. The purpose of this paper is to know the overview of healthy houses in Indonesia. The data used is the 2017 Susenas module. The assessment of healthy houses is based on 17 parameters which are divided into three categories, namely good, medium and less. From the results of the analysis it was found that the number of healthy houses in Indonesia was 11.3% good / fulfilling healthy conditions, 75.70% moderate categories, and 13.00% less categories. The results of mapping the number of houses in good condition are mostly in Java, Bali and southern Sumatra. Keywords : house, healthy house, mapping

Households' responses to climate change: contingent behavior evidence from rural South Africa

AbstractWe investigate households' decisions regarding livelihood activities in response to future climate change in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. We use the contingent behavior method and account for unobserved heterogeneity in order to overcome problems associated with limited data, collinearity and endogeneity. We characterize the climate change with two types of climate change scenarios: dry-spells and wet-spells. Results show that moderate and extreme increases in dry-spells increase adoption of off-farm activities such as casual labor and small business, and decrease adoption of on-farm activities such as gardening. We find opposite cases for mild or moderate wet-spells. Our results also show that households tend to diversify their livelihood portfolios in response to a moderate increase in dry-spells and a mild increase in wet-spells. Some household characteristics are also important in influencing some types of activities, including household's health status, gender of the household head, and household's prior experience.

Women's Empowerment in Agriculture and Household‐Level Health in Northern Ghana: A Capability Approach

AbstractThe effect of women's empowerment on household's health status is examined for households in northern Ghana with a Multiple Indicators Multiple Causes model by using a capability approach. Household's latent health is represented by the number of stunted children, number of wasted children and number of underweight women. Demographic and socioeconomic variables are used as covariates. Results confirmed the existence of underlying latent physical health. Results showed a positive effect of women's empowerment on household's health status, with implications on its intrahousehold effect. Covariates such as father's literacy, the proportion of dependents and health expenditures are significantly associated with the health of a household. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Food allergy response capabilities of mothers and related factors.

A parent's ability to confidently manage a child's food allergy (i.e. food allergy response capability) is considered instrumental toward treating this disorder; however, little is known regarding this measure and associated factors. A questionnaire survey among 280 qualified participants identified the greatest food allergy response capability as "spousal collaboration", followed by "elimination diet capacity", "gathering information from medical professionals", "knowledge about food allergies", and "stress coping". These capabilities were associated with maternal and household health status, food items eliminated and their number, anaphylaxis experience, and type of medical facility used. This measure represented a predictor of maternal quality of life and health status, household health status, and overall life stress (not related to childrearing). Thus, to improve food allergy response capability, multidisciplinary cooperation and support are required from professionals, such as physicians, nurses, nutritionists, and clinical psychologists. Nurses in particular must take an interest in the situations these mothers face and in their emotions; elicit their power to cope with stress; provide knowledge about food allergies; provide individualized, specific information about elimination diets; and conduct interventions to enable spousal cooperation.

Costs and outcomes of improving population health through better social housing: a cohort study and economic analysis

ObjectivesWe sought to determine the impact of warmth-related housing improvements on the health, well-being, and quality of life of families living in social housing.MethodsAn historical cohort study design was used. Households were recruited by Gentoo, a social housing contractor in North East England. Recruited households were asked to complete a quality of life, well-being, and health service use questionnaire before receiving housing improvements (new energy-efficient boiler and double-glazing) and again 12 months afterwards.ResultsData were collected from 228 households. The average intervention cost was £3725. At 12-month post-intervention, a 16% reduction (−£94.79) in household 6-month health service use was found. Statistically significant positive improvements were observed in main tenant and household health status (p < 0.001; p = 0.009, respectively), main tenant satisfaction with financial situation (p = 0.020), number of rooms left unheated per household (p < 0.001), frequency of household outpatient appointments (p = 0.001), and accident/emergency department attendance (p < 0.012).ConclusionsWarmth-related housing improvements may be a cost-effective means of improving the health of social housing tenants and reducing health service expenditure, particularly in older populations.