Learning Journal 17

I stumbled on a great resource online recently. It's a set of articles called the Malaria Eradication Research Agenda (malERA). These articles were written by the malERA Consultative Groups, each focusing on a particular aspect of the malaria eradication campaign (e.g. vector control, drugs, vaccines, diagnoses). This also led me to a very valuable resource called the WHO's malaria elimination field manual. This manual contains information on the feasibility of malaria eradication, tools for specific elimination programs, monitoring evaluation of progress, prevention of the re-establishment of malaria, etc. These two resources contain a ton of information that I am eager to implement into my project. I have only read a couple of pages of each and they have led me to some questions:

1. Why did the Global Malaria Eradication Project in the 1950's and 1960's fail to produce results in sub-Saharan Africa?

2. The WHO has summits and conferences where they develop proposals for malaria eradication strategies. How does Ghana implement these strategies.

I think the answers to these questions are in the resources I found, it will just take me a while to get through it all.

Keywords: malaria eradication research agenda, WHO's malaria elimination field manual

Learning Journal 16

I think volunteering at the clinic will be a valuable resource throughout my project. When I come to new developments in my research findings I can discuss them with staff at the clinic and get their perspective on an ongoing basis. I think they will give me valuable insight on the local implementation of treatments that will be useful throughout. My facilitator also mentioned a contact that students have interviewed in the past named Dr. Agyei in Agona. In my proposal I planned on interviewing him somewhere in the middle of my field study, but I think it would be valuable to interview him as I am developing my questionnaire. He will also have valuable insights on the current research agenda for the area. If I interview him early enough in the project I can incorporate things that I learn from him before I got going too far in one direction. I'm not sure how I will contact him. Maybe some of the employees at the clinic will be able to help me get his contact information.

I am realizing that it will be important when I get there to get in contact with as many locals doing research on malaria as possible so my research can be in line with what is already being done. I have already established that the clinic will be a good resource, but I haven't looked into many other possibilities. Who might I contact to learn more about that?

Keywords: volunteering at the clinic, community contacts

Journal Entry 15

Putting together my first draft of my project proposal made me aware of a couple things I had not thought about. First of all, what is it that I want to learn from volunteering and interviewing at the health clinic? Do I want to spend a lot of time learning about their treatment methods? Will I be able to interview patients who are diagnosed with malaria or will I be able to interview staff and health care providers only? How much time each day do I want to spend volunteering at the clinic? Will I only want to volunteer there at the beginning of my study then towards the end spend all of my time interviewing participants in the community? I get the feeling that some of these questions I will only be able to answer when I see the situation first hand, but it's good to think about considerations like this because it leads to other considerations that can be addressed beforehand.

Keywords: project proposal, volunteering at the clinic

Journal Entry 14

In the preparation course we are learning about entering a community right now. I will be entering a community where BYU field studies have been before so at least some of the local population will know who we are. I am realizing that I have no idea how to go about seeking a volunteer position at the clinic. Will the doctor we live with just give us an opportunity to volunteer there or will we need to seek out an administrator? Who is the gatekeeper for that type of position? It seems like in order to conduct my actual research I will not need approval from anyone. I intend to recruit participants by going door-to-door and requesting participation from people. Are there certain approvals I need in order to do that? I think I will just talk with my host family and some informants at the clinic about my proposed method of recruitment and see if they think it will work.

Keywords: entering a community, gatekeeper, recruitment methods

Project Proposal Draft 1

Follow this link to view my project proposal in a Google document

Journal Entry 13

How possible would it be to do a survey of as many citizens in Wiamoase and the surrounding areas? I would first need to develop a hypothesis to test. Some ideas I have had so far are:

• Lower income households are more likely to have an infant die from malaria
• As distance from a health-care center increases, the likelihood of an infant dying from malaria increases
• Education level of a parent/caretaker correlates to the likelihood of an infant dying from malaria
• As the number of children in a household increases, the likelihood of an infant dying from malaria increases
• Households that use an insecticide treated bednet are less likely to have an infant die due to malaria

A lot of these hypothesis have probably been tested so I will need to investigate these thoroughly so I am not doing research that has already been done. I would need to develop a set of questions that I could ask when I go to interview households. I could include a number of questions that would allow me to test multiple hypothesis (for example I can ask questions about household income and number of children in the household in the same interview). I have quite a few questions about doing this type of research though:

1. How will I define terms such as household income when I am developing interview questions? I know assessing wealth is much different in Ghana than it is here.
2. How willing will participants be to answer questions like 'what is your education level' and 'what is your income'? How can I ask these questions without prying and offending?
3. If an infant dies from malaria, but was never diagnosed how can I determine that the death of the infant can be attributed to malaria? Can I ask specific questions about the symptoms of the illness that took the child's life and determine if it was most likely malaria?
4. Would it be better to ask the questions in a highly-structured interview setting or should I develop a questionnaire to take around with me that participants can fill out. Can most people in Wiamoase and the outlying areas read well enough to fill out a questionnaire? Would I be able to find a place to print out questionnaires when I am in Wiamoase?

Keywords: survey, hypothesis, objectively define variables