Gate-keeping and women's health seeking behaviour in Navrongo, northern Ghana.
Among the Kassena-Nankana of northern Ghana, compound heads and husbands impede women's prompt access to modern health care. This paper shows that such gate-keeping systems have a negative effect on child survival. To investigate the social construction of compound-based gate-keeping systems, the authors relied on a series of qualitative interviews conducted in the Kassena-Nankana district These data reveal that whilst compound heads are gate-keepers for spiritual reasons, husbands play such role for economic reasons. But more important, this article presents health interventions that are on trial in Navrongo (northen Ghana) and how they undermine such gate-keeping systems.
Ngom
Pierre
P
African Population and Health Research Center, Population Council, P.O. Box 17643, Nairobi. pngom@aphrc.org
Debpuur
Cornelius
C
Akweongo
Patricia
P
Adongo
Philip
P
Binka
Fred N
FN
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D003466:Cultural Characteristics; D005260:Female; D017144:Focus Groups; D020793:Gatekeeping; D005869:Ghana / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D007226:Infant Mortality; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010342:Patient Acceptance of Health Care; D018454:Spouses; D014932:Women's Health Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*