‘Chasing Children’: The Impact of Rural Community-Based Health Services on Childhood Immunization in Nkwanta District, Ghana

J. Koku Awoonor-Williams, Ghana Health Service
Maya N. Vaughan-Smith, Population Council

This paper presents an evaluation of a rural community-based strategy for health service delivery and its impact on the Expanded Program of Immunization (EPI) coverage in Nkwanta District, Ghana. The EPI program in Ghana is implemented at static health facilities, which requires mothers to keep track of her child’s immunization schedule and travel to the provider’s facility at the specified time. Starting in 1998, Community-based Health Planning and Services (CHPS) introduced a new model of health service delivery by posting resident nurses in remote rural communities. In the CHPS model, nurses and volunteers travel to villages to provide integrated health care including child immunization by canvassing households door-to-door. Using data collected from a 2004 District Evaluation Survey, this analysis finds significant associations between living in a CHPS zone and improved odds for the complete immunization of children aged 12 to 59 months [OR=1.66, p=.017].