Dr. Abdallah Ibrahim, CPHSchool of Public Health
University of Ghana
Post-doc Coordinator – Accelerate Project
Project Title
Accelerating progress towards attainment of Millennium Development Goals (MDG) 4 and 5 in Ghana through basic health systems functioning strengthening (Accelerate Project)
Project Duration: 2011 - 2015
Accelerate Project - Ghana
Accelerate involves six PhD researchers in three disciplines, namely: Clinical Epidemiology, Medical Anthropology, Health Policy & Health Systems
The PhD researchers focusses on health care improvements to reduce maternal and neonatal mortality in Ghana.
Accelerate Project – Ghana/Netherlands Team
The Accelerate Project
Explore “how” and “why” clinical decision making for maternal and newborn care by frontline providers (doctors, clinical, public and community health nurses and midwives) is done in the health system
Explore what interventions would be most appropriate to support and improve the quality of clinical care decision making.
Accelerate Project - Progress
Project is currently at a “mixed-stage”, including: Completed data collection Completed draft manuscripts Data analyses
Peer-reviewed article publications in: BMC PlosOne Health Policy and Planning Health Research Policy and Systems
Sample Progress of (Accelerate) PhD studiesStudy Short title Study design
(data source)Outcome Statistical method Progress so far
Study I Risk factors for neonatal mortality
Cross sectional (DHS)
Neonatal mortality
Multilevel logistic regression
Published
Study II Neonatal data validation
Routine hospital data
Data accuracy Error rate & % of missing data estimation
Published
Study III Risk factors for LBW
Cross sectional (DHS)
Low birth weight Multilevel logistic regression
Published
Study IV Trends in childhood mortality: impacts & challenges of health programs
Longitudinal study (DHS)
Trends in childhood mortality
Trend analysis & Poisson regression
Completed
Study V Effect of maternal health insurance status on utilization of the continuum of care
Cross sectional (DHS)
Antenatal, Skilled delivery and postnatal care utilization
Logistic regression Completed
Study VI Variations in neonatal mortality across 49 Sub-Saharan Africa countries
Cross sectional (World Health Organization & World Bank)
Variation in neonatal mortality
Control chart, and spatial analysis
Completed
Study VII
Prediction model for stillbirth
Hospital data Stillbirth Logistic regression Data quality check & analysis
Accelerate Project Stakeholders
National level Ghana Health service Ministry of Health
Sub-national and Facility level Health care centers Frontline health workers (Nurses, doctors,
midwives) District health managers
Individual level Pregnant women
Stakeholders are involved at all levels
Stakeholder engagement strategies
Accelerate researchers have used various methods to engage the key stakeholders in their research.
They include: Ethnography Individual meetings Dialogues
Key research findings Accelerate is advancing for stakeholder actions
Findings
Community socioeconomic deprivation positively associated with neonatal death regardless of individual characteristics
Findings
Dwelling in rural area, community poverty level, illiteracy level, safe water coverage & Community healthcare access increased the risk of having LBW infant
KT Challenges in Accelerate
KT-related challenges in Accelerate incliude differences in progress/timeline among the researchers
Difference in timeline impedes identifying and packaging an integrated project message
KT Products generated or accomplished
Activities generated or accomplished under Accelerate Policy briefs Shared findings at meetings Presentations and poster contest at
conferences Additional KT products/activities planned
Stakeholder dissemination with KTNet-Africa Media products
Support from KTNet-Africa
The End
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