Department of Environment and Resource Studies, Faculty of Integrated Development Studies, Wa Campus, University for Development Studies, Tamale, Ghana.
Department of Geography and Regional Planning, College of Humanities and Legal Studies, University of Cape Coast, Cape Coast, Ghana.
PLoS One. 2019 Aug 30;14(8):e0221324. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0221324. eCollection 2019.
Childhood morbidities are common in Ghana. The present study sought to geospatially analyze morbidities among children (0-23 months of age) using five different survey datasets (1993-2014) from the Ghana Demographic and Health Survey.
Logistic regression was used to examine childhood morbidity within a place of residence. Then three spatial statistical tools were applied to analyze morbidities among children (0-23 months of age). These tools were: spatial autocorrelation (Global Moran's I)-used to examine clustering or dispersion patterns; cluster and outlier analysis (Anselin's local Moran's I)-to ascertain geographic composition of childhood morbidity clusters and outliers; and hot spot analysis (Getis-Ord G)-to identify clusters of high values (hot spots) and low values (cold spots).
Children in rural areas were much burdened with the occurrence of childhood morbidity. The study revealed positive spatial autocorrelation for childhood morbidity in Ghana. Childhood morbidity (diarrhoea, ARI, anaemia, and fever) clusters were identified within districts in the country. Children in rural areas were more likely to be morbid with diarrhoea, anaemia, and fever compared to those in urban areas. Hot spot districts for diarrhoea, anaemia and fever were mainly situated in semi-arid areas and those with ARI were located both at the semi-arid areas and coastal portions of Ghana.
Rural children are much exposed to have higher burden of a childhood morbidity compared to their urban counterparts. Most semi-arid districts in Ghana are burdened with diarrhoea, ARI, anaemia, and fever. To minimize the occurrence of childhood morbidity in Ghana, designing of more context-based interventions to target hot spots districts of these morbidities are required in order to use scarce resources judiciously.
在加纳，儿童期疾病较为常见。本研究旨在利用来自加纳人口与健康调查（1993-2014 年）的五个不同调查数据集，对儿童（0-23 个月）的疾病进行地理空间分析。
使用逻辑回归检查居住地点内的儿童发病情况。然后应用三种空间统计工具分析 0-23 个月儿童的发病情况：空间自相关（全局 Moran's I）——用于检查聚类或离散模式；聚类和异常值分析（Anselin 的局部 Moran's I）——确定儿童发病聚类和异常值的地理构成；热点分析（Getis-Ord G）——识别高值（热点）和低值（冷点）聚类。
农村地区的儿童发病负担更重。研究表明，加纳儿童发病存在正空间自相关。在加纳，确定了农村地区的儿童发病聚类。与城市地区相比，农村地区的儿童更容易出现腹泻、贫血和发热等疾病。腹泻、贫血和发热的热点地区主要位于半干旱地区，而 ARI 的热点地区则位于半干旱地区和加纳沿海地区。
与城市儿童相比，农村儿童更容易患上更高的儿童发病负担。加纳的大多数半干旱地区都存在腹泻、ARI、贫血和发热的负担。为了减少加纳儿童发病的发生，需要设计更多基于背景的干预措施，针对这些疾病的热点地区，以便明智地利用稀缺资源。
