Geographic access and maternal health services utilization in Sélingué Health District, Mali.

Introduction. Maternal mortality is one of the main causes of death for women of childbearing age in Mali, and improving this outcome is slow, even in high geographic-access regions. Disparities in maternal health services utilization can constitute a major obstacle in the reduction of maternal mortality and denotes a lack of equity in the Malian health system.Literature on maternal health inequity has explored structural and individual factors influencing outcomes but has not examined inequities in health facility distribution within moderate geographic access districts in Mali. The purpose of this article is to examine disparities in education and geographic distance and how they affect utilization of maternal care within the Sélingué health district, a district with moderate geographic access to care, near Bamako, Mali.Methods. We conducted a cross sectional survey with cluster sampling in the Sélingué health district. Maternal health services characteristics and indicators were described. Association between dependent and independent variables was verified using Kendall’s tau-b correlation, Chi square, logistic regression with odds ratio and 95% confidence interval. Gini index and concentration curve were used to measure inequity.Results. The majority of the participants were 20 to 24 years old. Over 68% of our sample had some education, 65% completed at least four ANC visits, and 60.8% delivered at a health facility. Despite this evidence of healthcare access in Sélingué, disparities within the health district impede the other roughly 40% of our sample from utilizing maternal healthcare. The concentration index demonstrated the impact of inequity in geographic access comparing women residing near and far from the referral care facility.Conclusion. Maternal health services underutilization, within a district with moderate geographic access, indicates that deliberate attention should be paid to addressing geographic access even in such a district.