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NAVRONGO HEALTH RESEARCH CENTRE A Field station of the Ministry of Health, Ghana (Member of the INDEPTH Network)
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Location :Navrongo - Ghana
Investigators :S. Owusu-Agyei, Philip Adongo and Francis Anto
Collaboration
:Navrongo Health Research Centre (NHRC)
Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research,
Naval Medical Research Unit #3, Naval Medical Research Institute.
Funding :WHO/AFRO
Period Covered:1998
The study aims at examining community’s perception about illnesses, knowledge of malaria and convulsion, conceptualization of malaria and convulsion, the dynamics of health seeking behaviour and issues concerning health decision making and choice among the Kassena-Nankana of northern Ghana.
In-depth interviews (IDIs), Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) and a cross-sectional survey were conducted on carefully selected members of one of the most malarias communities in Ghana, the Kassena-Nankana district. All the interviews were recorded on tapes; each tape was played just after the interview and the information transcribed almost immediately by the moderators.
Malaria was perceived by the community as the most common and disturbing disease in the Kassena-Nankana district. Their knowledge about the cause and prevention of malaria was rather weak. They do not easily associate malaria with convulsion and will treat almost all convulsions at the traditional healers place instead of the hospital.