B.A Population and Health

This course deals with the nature and spatial patterns of diseases in Ghana and Africa. The focus is on the types of diseases, those affected, and the factors contributing to the observed patterns, strategies that can be adopted to mitigate the identified problems. The issues will be discussed within the context of the health components of the Millennium Development Goals. 

The objective of the course is to introduce students to some basic measurements in population and health. It deals with basic indices in population and health: measures of fertility (crude birth rates, age specific birth rates, total fertility rates, etc), morbidity (incidence and prevalent rates, burden of diseases) mortality (crude death rates, age specific death rates, expectation of life at birth etc), migration (in and out) and growth curves.  

This course deals with concepts and perspectives in population, development and the environment; population growth, size and quality; concept of sustainable development and environment; environmental perception and development; socio-economic implications of a rapid population growth in Ghana; population, development and the environment with reference to land, water, forests, mining, wildlife and pollution;  managing the environment; attaining sustainable development in Ghana.

The course introduces students to the socio-psychological and ethical dimensions of population issues. It involves aspects such as the meaning of life; perceptions and rationale for population issues such as numbers, marriage, childbearing, family formation, socialization; the practices and the relevance of Christianity, Islam and Traditional African Religion for family living, population and the environment as well as issues of ethics in population, including the debate on in-vitro fertilization, cloning, euthanasia and abortion.

Mounted by the Institute for Development Studies and offered by all students of the Faculty of Social Sciences

Available at the Department of Geography and Regional Planning

The course involves the methods of population estimation and projections. It includes assumptions underlying projections and estimations of fertility, mortality, and migration as inputs into population projections; direct and indirect estimates of population indices; estimating components of total fertility; and the aggregation and dis-aggregation of data by age for projections.

This involves four- to six-week attachment during the long vacation at a population and/or health-related institution such as the Ghana AIDS Commission, Population Council, an NGO involved in population and/or health activities or an organised fieldwork by the Department. Lecturers will be expected to supervise students in the field.

The course deals with concepts and issues on responsible sexual life and adulthood; pre-marital guidance; sexual identity; sex education programmes in Ghana; marriage and conjugal sexuality; cultural perspectives on sex; sexually transmitted infections; pre- and post-natal care; parental responsibilities; abortion; regulations and laws relating to sexuality (including the Domestic Violence Law); Legal and moral dimension of sexual and reproductive behaviour and their implications for the spread of diseases such as HIV/AIDS and healthy living.

The aim of the course is to provide students with practical skills in scientific writing. It involves review and summary of literature, analysis of data collected from the field and presentation of materials in writing form and in power point. Data cleaning, manipulation and generation of results are also covered. Special emphasis will be placed on demographic and health data presentation.

Mounted by the Department of Sociology and Anthropology 

The course deals with issues in sexual and reproductive health of young people, societal perception of the reproductive health needs of young people, their individuality. It covers aspects such as the vulnerability of young people to sexually transmitted infections including HIV and pregnancy, their health seeking behaviour and the structures available for meeting the reproductive health needs of young people.

This course involves issues in sources of income; credit as a resource; managing personal and family income; planning the use of income; planning for the future; consumer practices; advertisement and the consumer; consumer education; household production and family welfare as well as age-sex variability in family financing.  

The course focuses on reproductive issues in relation to the sexual health of both males and females and their families. The main issues covered are healthy sexuality, sexual violence, intended birth including abortion, decision making at the family level, especially on family size and spacing and reproductive health programmes and challenges.

This course deals with the history of diseases and the emergence of certain diseases at any point in time. Concepts such as the epidemiological transition and health transition will be employed. The current focus will be on HIV/AIDS as the emerging disease of the last century.  Some of the emerging diseases are ebola and buruli.  The socio-cultural context and the vulnerability of certain populations to 'new' diseases will be examined.   

Students will be introduced to theories of migration patterns from historical perspective in Ghana and around the world. Contemporary issues and policies on internal and international migration (including brain and brawn drain) and their implications for sending and receiving economies will also be covered. Other areas include migration and mining, agriculture, health and gender; forced migration; and international conventions on migration

The course deals with issues in socio-cultural and economic dimensions of health research. The role of health systems research, health research for socio-economic development within the context of health as a social good; priority-setting methodologies; network analysis and health research; focus on disease conditions and determinants; health policy and systems research.