CHEPSAA Archive

The Consortium for Health Policy and Systems Analysis in Africa (CHEPSAA) this week got a taste of the MPH programme of the School of Public Health, University of Ghana when it had the opportunity to network with some of the students in this programme. This networking event was arranged as part of the 4th annual meeting of CHEPSAA, which took place in Accra, and involved discussion of selected students' proposed MPH dissertation topics.

LEFT: Senanu Kwesi Djokoto, Prof. Lucy Gilson (CHEPSAA coordinator), Boateng Ampomah Laud and Kojo Anniah.

The first presentation was by Kojo Anniah, a participant in CHEPSAA's Emerging Leaders Programme, whose research project is entitled Health Policy and Systems Research (HPSR) Strengthening in Ghana: The Contribution of Three Institutions of the University of Ghana. The objective of this work is to describe the past, present and potential future contributions of the School of Public Health, the Department of Public Administration and Health Services Management of the University of Ghana Business School and the Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research to HPSR capacity strengthening in Ghana.

Kojo's presentation was followed by Senanu Kwesi Djokoto, who is conducting a case study in a municipality in the Volta region and investigating the non-renewal of membership in the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS). He aims to explore community, health provider and scheme factors contributing to the non-renewal of membership in the NHIS.

The final presentation was by Boateng Ampomah Laud, who is planning to investigate sleep habits and road traffic accident risk among long-distance drivers. The specific objectives of his research are to assess (i) the prevalence of poor sleep habits among long-distance drivers through questionnaire-based methods, (ii) the association between sleep habits assessed through the ARES questionnaire and road traffic accident risk, and (iii) perceptions, attitudes and practices related to sleep and accident risk.

The three students who presented are part of a class of about 60. The first two projects fall within the health policy, planning and management track of the MPH, while the third is being done from within the epidemiology track.

All three proposals are currently undergoing ethical review and the plan is for the students to start the research in May this year and to submit their dissertations in August. The discussions not only enabled the students to get feedback on their proposals, but also to explore links between their work and other work within the CHEPSAA partner institutions.