Ghana - World Health Survey 2003, Wave 0

Q6551-6559. This set of questions is only asked if the youngest child in the household under age 5 was reported to have ever been ill, and refers to the last period of illness. The purpose is to identify whether any of the following symptoms were experienced: fever, cough, difficult or fast breathing, diarrhoea, blood in the stools, vomiting everything, inability to eat or drink, or convulsions. These are symptoms of the majority of diseases that affect young children. Some of these are danger signs indicating that the child is severely ill and should receive qualified medical care immediately.
It is important that the interview probe for each of the symptoms and record all symptoms mentioned in the corresponding boxes. For the symptom of “fever”, prompt with other local terms such as “hot body”. Difficult or fast breathing may also be referred to as “shortness of breath”. If the respondent is unsure what is meant by diarrhoea, explain “more than three runny stools per day”. For “vomiting everything”, the interviewer should probe for persistent vomiting. If the respondent mentions any other symptoms that the child had, write down exactly what was said.