Table 1.
Population Descriptive Statistics for adolescent boys and girls aged 15–19 years from the 2014 Ghana Demographic Health Survey Data.
| Variables | Pooled Data (n = 1727) | Girls (n = 857) | Boys (n = 870) | p-Value 1 | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mean or Percentage | S.E (Mean) | Mean or Percentage | S.E (Mean) | Mean or Percentage | S.E (Mean) | ||
| Nutritional status and blood pressure | |||||||
| Arm circumference (cm) | 26.00 | 0.12 | 26.31 | 0.18 | 25.68 | 0.17 | <0.0001 |
| Weight (kg) | 54.17 | 0.25 | 53.42 | 0.32 | 54.91 | 0.39 | <0.0001 |
| Height (cm) | 162.22 | 0.23 | 158.28 | 0.23 | 166.15 | 0.31 | <0.0001 |
| Age (years) | 16.89 | 0.04 | 16.83 | 0.05 | 17.00 | 0.05 | 0.048 |
| BMI (kg/m2) | 20.54 | 0.07 | 21.30 | 0.11 | 19.78 | 0.09 | <0.0001 |
| BAZ | −0.28 | 0.02 | 0.03 | 0.03 | −0.59 | 0.04 | <0.0001 |
| HAZ | −0.83 | 0.03 | −0.64 | 0.03 | −1.01 | 0.04 | <0.0001 |
| Systolic blood pressure (mmHg) | 110.49 | 0.33 | 107.52 | 0.45 | 113.48 | 0.46 | <0.0001 |
| Diastolic blood pressure (mmHg) | 68.52 | 0.25 | 69.22 | 0.39 | 67.83 | 0.31 | <0.0001 |
| Dietary intake and lifestyle | |||||||
| Frequency of listening to radio in the past week | 1.40 | 0.03 | 1.25 | 0.03 | 1.55 | 0.04 | <0.001 |
| Frequency of watching television in week the past week | 1.32 | 0.03 | 1.21 | 0.04 | 1.42 | 0.05 | <0.001 |
| Frequency of fruit intake in the past week | 2.97 | 0.09 | 3.04 | 0.11 | 2.90 | 0.12 | 0.001 |
| Frequency of vegetable intake in the past week | 3.58 | 0.10 | 3.26 | 0.11 | 3.89 | 0.14 | <0.001 |
| Health seeking behaviour | |||||||
| Visited a health facility in the last 6 months 2 | 15.0 | 19.2 | 10.8 | <0.0001 | |||
| Slept under mosquito bed net 2 | 28.5 | - | - | ||||
| Covered by National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) (yes) 2 | 55.6 | 56.9 | 54.4 | 0.43 | |||
| Blood pressure related covariates | |||||||
| Eaten in the past 10 minutes 2 | 52.9 | 58.9 | 46.9 | 0.0001 | |||
| Had coffee in the past 10 minutes 2 | 0.7 | 1.1 | 0.4 | 0.16 | |||
| Smoked in the past 10 minutes 2 | 0.1 | 0 | 0.2 | - | |||
| Exercised in the past 10 minutes 2 | 12.6 | 9.7 | 15.4 | 0.01 | |||
| SAFC | 1.55 | 0.03 | 1.58 | 0.04 | 1.51 | 0.05 | 0.70 |
| Demographics | |||||||
| Religion 2 | 0.003 | ||||||
| Christian | 78.7 | 80.6 | 76.8 | ||||
| Muslim | 16.9 | 17.1 | 16.6 | ||||
| Other | 4.4 | 2.3 | 6.6 | ||||
| Ethnicity 2 | 0.21 | ||||||
| Akan | 50.6 | 49.3 | 51.9 | ||||
| Mole-Dagbani | 14.9 | 16.6 | 13.3 | ||||
| Other | 34.5 | 34.1 | 34.8 | ||||
| Highest year of education | 2.98 | 0.03 | 3.01 | 0.08 | 2.95 | 0.08 | 0.012 |
| The highest educational level of adolescent 2 | 0.11 | ||||||
| No education | 3.2 | 3.8 | 2.5 | ||||
| Primary school | 22.1 | 23.7 | 20.5 | ||||
| Secondary education/Higher | 74.7 | 72.5 | 77.0 | ||||
| Occupation of adolescent 2 | 0.0001 | ||||||
| Unemployed | 57.8 | 64.5 | 51.2 | ||||
| Agriculture/unskilled labour | 31.4 | 26.9 | 35.9 | ||||
| Skilled labour | 10.7 | 8.6 | 12.9 | ||||
| The adolescent is currently in paid work 2 | 38.9 | 33.1 | 44.7 | 0.001 | |||
| Decision making and empowerment indices | |||||||
| Summated empowerment index | 3.91 | 0.05 | 3.23 | 0.06 | 4.55 | 0.05 | |
| Fertility, Marriage and Family Relations | |||||||
| The adolescent has experienced sex already 2 | 33.9 | 41.1 | 26.7 | <0.0001 | |||
| Age at first sex | 15.10 | 0.11 | 15.28 | 0.11 | 14.83 | 0.22 | <0.001 |
| The adolescent has a child 2 | 5.8 | 10.8 | 0.7 | <0.0001 | |||
| Age with first child | 16.68 | 0.16 | 16.59 | 0.15 | 18.15 | 0.25 | 0.025 |
| Total children adolescent has | 1.14 | 0.05 | 1.16 | 0.06 | 1.00 | 0.00 | <0.001 |
| Relation of adolescent to household head 2 | 0.99 | ||||||
| Household head | 3.2 | 1.9 | 4.5 | ||||
| Spouse | 1.8 | 3.6 | N/A | ||||
| Child (son/daughter) | 66.3 | 62.4 | 70.2 | ||||
| Grandchild | 8.0 | 8.0 | 8.0 | ||||
| Other family relation | 14.1 | 15.5 | 12.6 | ||||
| Non-family relation | 6.6 | 8.6 | 4.6 | ||||
| Marital status 2 | <0.0001 | ||||||
| Never married | 96.6 | 93.6 | 99.5 | ||||
| Currently married | 3.1 | 5.7 | 0.5 | ||||
| Formerly married | 0.3 | 0.7 | 0 | ||||
| Household characteristics of the adolescent | |||||||
| Age of household head | 49.34 | 0.55 | 49.20 | 0.67 | 49.48 | 0.83 | 0.59 |
| Household size | 5.74 | 0.10 | 5.70 | 0.11 | 5.78 | 0.13 | 0.57 |
| Number of children < 5yrs | 0.67 | 0.03 | 0.72 | 0.04 | 0.62 | 0.04 | 0.022 |
| WASH index | 3.57 | 0.07 | 3.57 | 0.08 | 3.56 | 0.09 | 0.96 |
| Number of household members covered by health insurance | 3.61 | 0.14 | 3.57 | 0.13 | 3.65 | 0.22 | 0.33 |
| Sex of household head (male) 2 | 64.5 | 59.6 | 69.4 | 0.001 | |||
| Household wealth index 2 | 0.27 | ||||||
| Poorest | 22.8 | 22.7 | 22.9 | ||||
| Poorer | 20.9 | 22.0 | 19.8 | ||||
| Middle | 19.2 | 18.8 | 19.6 | ||||
| Richer | 19.7 | 17.4 | 22.0 | ||||
| Richest | 17.4 | 19.1 | 15.7 | ||||
| Household owns land usable for agriculture 2 | 49.1 | 46.1 | 52.2 | 0.04 | |||
| Household owns livestock 2 | 50.5 | 48.6 | 52.4 | 0.26 | |||
| Mean household years of education | 5.42 | 0.12 | 5.28 | 0.16 | 5.56 | 0.13 | 0.22 |
| Geographical/environmental | |||||||
| Access to a health program for adolescents accessing health services 2 | 32.1 | 30.1 | 34.2 | 0.25 | |||
| Place of residence 2 | 0.54 | ||||||
| Rural | 50.4 | 50.5 | 51.4 | ||||
| Urban | 49.6 | 49.5 | 48.6 | ||||
| Agro–ecological zone 2 | 0.25 | ||||||
| Forest | 49.5 | 50.7 | 48.3 | ||||
| Guinea/Sudan savannah | 16.4 | 17.4 | 15.3 | ||||
| Coastal savannah | 34.1 | 31.9 | 36.4 | ||||
1 Between-group test for boys and girls; 2 Values are percentages; all other values are means and standard errors; BMI, Body mass index, BAZ, Body mass index for-age z-score; HAZ, height-for-age z-score; SAFC, household salty food consumption score; WASH, Water, Sanitation and Hygiene; N/A, not applicable as none of the adolescent boys was a spouse to the household head.