Poster session on Society and culture

The study examines the intersection between social support, food habits and health outcomes in Ghana. Patterns of fruit consumption is low in Ghana, we make the argument that fruits are not consumed because they are perceived as not filling or “heavy”, in a situation where people are managing food insecurity fruit consumption is not on the list of prioritised meals even with social supports. The data analysed are from the second round of the EDULINK project in three urban communities in Accra (659 individuals). Social support was measured by participant’s ability to ask for food help from neighbours. The total number of times fruits were consumed in a week was estimated for each participant using a food frequency questionnaire. Body mass index was measured using the body weight and height. Half of the respondents (50.1%) considered asking food help from neighbours. Fruit consumption ranged from 0-42 times in a week. About 42% of the sample was overweight/obese. Asking for food help from neighbours was decreased fruit consumption. Increase in fruit consumption decreased the probability of been overweight/obese. Age, sex and educational level of respondents were the main predictors of overweight/obesity. When people are asking for foods from neighbours fruits may not be on list of foods asked because of its cultural value.

Nigeria accounts for 10% of world’s maternal deaths. Meanwhile 62% of women deliver at home and 36% receive postnatal care. The poor maternal health situation has been linked to ethnic origin, but little is known about the role of ethnic diversity and homogeneity in the use of maternal health care services. We assessed the role of diversity and homogeneity in the utilization of delivery and postnatal care using a representative sample of 17542 women aged 15-49 years from the 2008 Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey. Multivariate logistic regression was employed to examine the association between ethnicity and the use of delivery and postnatal care. Preliminary results indicated that women who lived in communities with high proportion of women from different ethnic groups were less likely to deliver in a heath facility compared to those who lived in homogenous communities. Living in high ethnic diversity communities is significantly associated with increased odds of receiving postnatal care. Results demonstrated that ethnic diversity plays important role in understanding the differences in the utilization of maternal health care services. Findings suggest that interventions aimed at improving the use of maternal health care should take into account the concentration of ethnic groups in the community.

This methodological paper describes systematically the steps towards exploring client perceived barriers to enroll in a National Health Insurance Scheme in Ghana. To unravel clients’ motives we adopt a Participatory Action Approach, which allows inquiring deeply in clients’ assumptions and root causes of the barriers to health insurance enrolment, while transferring learning among multiple stakeholders in the system: the client, the healthcare provider and the insurer. We employ a linked trajectory of qualitative and quantitative methods to gather in depth- individual views and interpretations, followed by two stakeholder validation meetings to capture emic concepts arising from group interaction. To obtain generalizeable knowledge the data is used for the design of a survey. Based on all data interventions were developed that engage all stakeholders. Data was collected in 2011 and 2012 among clients in their local communities in two regions in Ghana. This paper aims to add to the existing literature by describing and reasoning the scientific contribution of the Participatory Action Research. We claim that this participatory approach leads to reliable, rich data and evidence based interventions, aiming at client centered services and increased enrolment in the health insurance.

In 2000 the Government of Indonesia made a political breakthrough by allowing its statistical agency to collect and publish data on ethnicity in its population census. The data in the census is the first statistics on ethnicity in Indonesia since its independence in 1945. Earlier statistics was collected during the colonial time in 1930. The 2010 population census continued the initiative, collecting and publishing the statistics on ethnicity. We utilize the coded raw data of 2010 population census to produce and analyse the first statistics on ethnic composition in Indonesia in 2010. We evaluate its changes during 2000-2010. We also calculate and discuss the first statistics on the religion and language of each of the ethnic groups. Because of space limitation, we focus on the fifteen largest ethnic groups, covering 84.89 percent of total Indonesian citizens in Indonesia in 2010. We utilize our New Classification of ethnic groups in Indonesia, which is a useful guide for anybody who wants to study Indonesia’s ethnicity using the 2010 population census.