Determinants of partial and adequate maternal health services utilization in Nigeria: analysis of cross-sectional survey

Abstract

Background Access to health services during pregnancy, childbirth and the period after birth provides a substantial opportunity to limit cases of maternal mortality. In sub-Saharan Africa, the proportions of women who utilize health services remain below 70%. This study examined the factors associated with partial and adequate maternal health services utilization in Nigeria. Methods This paper used data from 2018 Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) comprising 21,792 women aged 15–49 years who had given births within five years of the survey. The study focused on antenatal care attendance, place of birth and postnatal care using a combined model. Multinomial logistic regression was applied in the analysis. Results About 74% of the women attended antenatal care, 41% gave birth in health facilities and 21% attended postnatal care. While 68% of the women partially utilized health services, 11% adequately utilized the services. The odds of partially and adequately utilizing health services increased for ever married women, women with secondary or higher education, from richest households, living in urban area, having no problem either getting permission to visit health facility or reaching health facility. Conclusions This study has revealed the factors associated with partial and adequate utilization of maternal health services in Nigeria. Such factors include education, household wealth, marital status, employment status, residence, region, media exposure, getting permission to use health service, unwillingness to visit health facility without being accompanied and distance to health facility. Efforts aimed at improving maternal health services utilization should place emphasis on these factors.

Optimizing the utilization of maternal and reproductive healthcare services among women in low-resourced Nigerian settings

“…This can be done during ante-natal care services which record an increasing number of women in attendance according to studies by [ 6 , 31 ]. This finding corroborates with existing literatures by [ 1 ] and [ 20 ] on the essence of health education during ante-natal care as a measure in achieving maternal healthcare service utilization for rural women in Nigeria.…”

Sociodemographic Correlates of Integrated Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health Services Utilization Among Childbearing Mothers in Nigeria

“…This irregular availability of family planning medications, especially in rural areas, would be detrimental to the timeliness required for the emergency usage of these drugs were necessary. On the other hand, limited utilization of antenatal services due to the place of residence was also identified when NDHS data from 2013-2018 was systematically analyzed [ 25 ]. Another study showed that about 25% of women in Benue State spend more than 30 minutes before arriving at their nearest health facility [ 26 ].…”

Predictors of maternal health services uptake in West African region: a multilevel multinomial regression analysis of demographic health survey reports

“…The outcome variable was then further divided into three categories: not utilized (for those who used none of the three services); partially utilized (for those who used one or two of the services); and adequately utilized (for those who used all of the services). Previous studies employed similar classification approaches, as of ‘no’, ‘partial’, and ‘adequate’ service uptake [ 34 , 35 ].…”