KINTAMPO HEALTH DEMOGRAPHIC SURVEILLANCE SYSTEM(KHDSS)

Introduction

In 1994, the Kintampo Health Research Centre was established and has been implementing a health-related research programme in both Kintampo North and South Districts in the Brong Ahafo Region of Ghana. The Kintampo Demographic Surveillance System (KDSS) is one of the major components of this field programme established in November 2003.

The KDSS started with the registration of pregnancies, births, and deaths at the household level in 129 communities. Registration of migration, and verbal Autopsies (VA) and other vital demographic statistics would be carried out in 2005. Field workers obtain this information by visiting each household half yearly fill out the event registration questionnaires. The Household Registration Book (HRB) is also updated for each household. New households and split households are also registered. The activities of the field workers are supervised by field supervisors and Assistant Research Officers.

Basic outputs

The unit of observation at the Kintampo DSS is the household which on average has 6 members as against 5.7 in 2003. The urban areas have more members in a household than in the rural areas. In December 2004, the KDSS registered a population of 126,042 as against 115,919 registered in 2003. Females constitute 50.3% (63,573) and males constitute 49.7% (62,829). The population of the top ten communities is shown in table 1 below.

 Top ten communities (2004 total population)

The number of compounds also increased from 19,009 in 2003 to 19,167 in 2004. The total number of households registered in 2004 was 23,402 as against 22,220 in 2003. The population in the Kintampo DSA is young with about 43% < 15 years old. The age dependency ratio is 90.1%. Female constitute 48.6 % of the population at birth given a sex ratio at birth of 105 males per 100 females. Multiple births constitute about 1.8% of the total population. The population pyramid of the KDSS area is shown in Figure 1 below:

722 deaths were recorded with males constituting 58.3% and females 41.7% of all deaths. 24.7% occurred in a health facility, 73% in homes and 2.3% with a traditional healer. Out of the 24.7% of the deaths occurring in a health facility, 23.73% was in at least level B health institution (Health Centre). 73.4% of all pregnant women had at least one antenatal clinic visit for their current pregnancy. 47.8% had at least one TT injection for their current pregnancy and only 12% had at least two injections. 54% ever had TT injection and only 21% had at least 4 injections.

During the NID programme in 2004, data for under five population was generated for the District Health Management team to serve as the base population for the immunisations exercise. It is a delight to report that the KDSS has now been fully accredited as an INDEPTH member. This development puts the KDSS in a very strategic position to compare its population dynamics with other INDEPTH member sites, thereby opening opportunities for research undertakings across member sites.