scholarly journals Evaluation of the Direct Health Facility Financing Program in Improving Maternal Health Services in Pangani District, Tanzania

2021 ◽  
Vol Volume 13 ◽  
pp. 1227-1242
Author(s):  
Samwel Marco Tukay ◽  
Liliane Pasape ◽  
Kassimu Tani ◽  
Fatuma Manzi
2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruth Atuhaire

Abstract Background Maternal health care and treatment services have a bearing on maternal mortality. Direct and Indirect factors affecting Maternal health outcomes therefore require understanding to enable well targeted interventions. This study, therefore, assessed the interrelationships between early antenatal care, health facility delivery and early postnatal care.Methods We investigated Maternal Health services using utilizing Antenatal care (ANC) within three months of pregnancy, Health facility delivery and utilizing postnatal care (PNC) within 48 hours after childbirth. The 2016 Uganda Demographic and Health Survey data was used. During analysis, a Generalized Structural Equation Model using logistic link and binomial family option was used. The interrelated (Endogenous) outcomes were timely ANC, health facility delivery and timely PNC.Results Timely ANC (aOR=1.04; 95% CI=0.95-1.14) and(aOR=1.1; 95% CI=1.00-1.26) was directly related to increased odds of health facility delivery and timely PNC respectively. Factors that increased the odds of timely ANC as a mediating factor for health facility delivery and timely PNC were women age 35-39 (aOR=1.18; 95% CI=0.99-1.24) compared to women age 15-19, completing primary seven (aOR=1.68; 95% CI=1.58-1.81) compared to some primary, available health workers (aOR=1.06; 95% CI=0.97-1.18), complications (aOR=2.04; 95% CI=1.89-2.26) and desire for pregnancy(aOR=1.15; 95% CI=1.03-1.36). Factors that reduced the odds of timely ANC were being married (aOR=0.93; 95% CI=0.89-1.20), distance and cost of service being problematic (aOR=0.97; 95% CI=0.85-1.1) (aOR=0.5; 95% CI=0.37-0.82) respectively. Factors that significantly influenced health facility delivery through timely ANC were; unmarried (OR=1.03; (=1.04*0.99)), distance being problematic ((aOR=1.0; (=1.04*0.97)) and complications (aOR=2.02; (=1.04*1.94)). Factors that significantly influenced timely PNC through timely ANC were; women age 35-39 (aOR=1.3; (=1.18*1.1)) compared to 15-19, completing primary seven (aOR=1.68; (=1.68*1.1))compared to some primary and service cost being problematic (aOR=0.55; (=0.5*1.1)). Surprisingly, health facility delivery was not statistically significant as a mediator for timely PNC.Conclusion Attending antenatal care within first trimester was a mediating factor for health facility delivery and early postnatal care. Interventions in maternal health should focus on factors that increase antenatal care first trimester attendance in resource limited settings. Furthermore, Government should reduce on costs of attaining all maternal health services and emphasize girl education completion.


2019 ◽  
Vol 34 (10) ◽  
pp. 752-761
Author(s):  
Soyoon Weon ◽  
David W Rothwell ◽  
Shailen Nandy ◽  
Arijit Nandi

Abstract In low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), many women of reproductive age experience morbidity and mortality attributable to inadequate access to and use of health services. Access to personal savings has been identified as a potential instrument for empowering women and improving access to and use of health services. Few studies, however, have examined the relation between savings ownership and use of maternal health services. In this study, we used data from the Indonesian Family Life Survey to examine the relation between women’s savings ownership and use of maternal health services. To estimate the effect of obtaining savings ownership on our primary outcomes, specifically receipt of antenatal care, delivery in a health facility and delivery assisted by a skilled attendant, we used a propensity score weighted difference-in-differences approach. Our findings showed that acquiring savings ownership increased the proportion of women who reported delivering in a health facility by 22 percentage points [risk difference (RD) = 0.22, 95%CI = 0.08–0.37)] and skilled birth attendance by 14 percentage points (RD = 0.14, 95%CI = 0.03–0.25). Conclusions were qualitatively similar across a range of model specifications used to assess the robustness of our main findings. Results, however, did not suggest that savings ownership increased the receipt of antenatal care, which was nearly universal in the sample. Our findings suggest that under certain conditions, savings ownership may facilitate the use of maternal health services, although further quasi-experimental and experimental research is needed to address threats to internal validity and strengthen causal inference, and to examine the impact of savings ownership across different contexts.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Moctar TOUNKARA ◽  
Oumar Sangho ◽  
Madeleine Beebe ◽  
Lillian Joyce Whiting-Collins ◽  
Rebecca R. Goins ◽  
...  

Abstract 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.


Author(s):  
Demisu Zenbaba ◽  
Biniyam Sahiledengle ◽  
Diriba Dibaba ◽  
Mitiku Bonsa

Facility-based delivery service is recognized as intermediation to reduce complications during delivery. Current struggles to reduce maternal mortality in low-and-middle income countries, including Ethiopia, primarily focus on deploying skilled birth attendants and upgrading emergency obstetric care services. This study was designed to assess utilization of health facility–based delivery service and associated factors among mothers who gave birth in the past 2 years in Gindhir District, Southeast Ethiopia. A community-based cross-sectional study design was conducted in Gindhir District from March 1 to 30, 2020, among 736 randomly selected mothers who gave birth in the past 2 years. A multistage sampling technique was used to select the study participants and a pretested, structured questionnaire was used to collect data through face-to-face interviews. The collected data were managed and analyzed using SPSS version 23. Of the 736 mothers interviewed, 609 (82.7%), 95% CI: 80.1, 85.5%, of them used health facilities to give birth in the past 2 years for their last delivery. Mothers who lived in rural areas had 4 or more ANC visits, received 3 or more doses of the TT vaccine, and had good knowledge of maternal health services were found to have a statistically significant association with facility-based delivery service utilization. In Gindhir District, mothers have been using health facility–based delivery services at a high rate for the past 2 years. Higher ANC visits and TT vaccine doses, as well as knowledge of maternal health services and being a rural resident, were all linked to using health facility–based delivery services. As a result, unrestricted assistance must be provided to mothers who have had fewer ANC visits and have poor knowledge on maternal health services.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
Author(s):  
Siri Aas Rustad ◽  
Helga Malmin Binningsbø ◽  
Haakon Gjerløw ◽  
Francis Mwesigye ◽  
Tony Odokonyero ◽  
...  

Introduction: Uganda is one of the largest refugee-hosting nations in the world, with the majority of the refugees having fled South Sudan. In the early 2000's the local government and refugee health systems were merged to create a more equal and integrated system for refugees and the host population. Our aim is to investigate whether mothers from the two groups experience the same access to and quality of maternal health services, and whether refugee- and host-community mothers perceive the maternal health services differently.Methods: In November–December 2019, we conducted a household survey of 1,004 Ugandan nationals and South Sudanese refugee mothers aged 15–49 in the West Nile region covering the districts of Arua, Yumbe, and Adjumani, and elicited information on access to maternal health care services, perceptions of the quality of services, and feelings of discrimination. The data was then analyzed using Ordinary Least Squares and logistic regression.Results: Our analyses do not reveal large differences between refugees and the host community in terms of access to and the quality of maternal health services. Results from bivariate models indicate that refugee mothers are 6% points less likely to receive antenatal care (p-value < 0.05) but are 8% points more likely to give birth at a health facility (p-value < 0.05). Refugee mothers are generally less satisfied with how they were treated during antenatal care (0.132 lower average value on a Likert scale, p-value < 0.01). Refugee mothers are also 4% points more likely to feel discriminated against during ANC compared to their counterparts in the host community (p-value < 0.05).Discussion: The way women feel treated at the health facility during maternal health care is an important aspect of quality care. While there seems to be equal access to resources between refugees and host community mothers in Northern Uganda in terms of access to and quality of care, there is still a discrepancy between the two groups in terms of how the women feel treated. Policymakers and practitioners in the health sector should pay attention to these perceived inequalities between refugees and women from the host communities to ensure equally inclusive treatment across groups.


2020 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Adweeti Nepal ◽  
Santa Kumar Dangol ◽  
Anke van der Kwaak

Abstract Background The persistent quality gap in maternal health services in Nepal has resulted in poor maternal health outcomes. Accordingly, the Government of Nepal (GoN) has placed emphasis on responsive and accountable maternal health services and initiated social accountability interventions as a strategical approach simultaneously. This review critically explores the social accountability interventions in maternal health services in Nepal and its outcomes by analyzing existing evidence to contribute to the informed policy formulation process. Methods A literature review and desk study undertaken between December 2018 and May 2019. An adapted framework of social accountability by Lodenstein et al. was used for critical analysis of the existing literature between January 2000 and May 2019 from Nepal and other low-and-middle-income countries (LMICs) that have similar operational context to Nepal. The literature was searched and extracted from database such as PubMed and ScienceDirect, and web search engines such as Google Scholar using defined keywords. Results The study found various social accountability interventions that have been initiated by GoN and external development partners in maternal health services in Nepal. Evidence from Nepal and other LMICs showed that the social accountability interventions improved the quality of maternal health services by improving health system responsiveness, enhancing community ownership, addressing inequalities and enabling the community to influence the policy decision-making process. Strong gender norms, caste-hierarchy system, socio-political and economic context and weak enforceability mechanism in the health system are found to be the major contextual factors influencing community engagement in social accountability interventions in Nepal. Conclusions Social accountability interventions have potential to improve the quality of maternal health services in Nepal. The critical factor for successful outcomes in maternal health services is quality implementation of interventions. Similarly, continuous effort is needed from policymakers to strengthen monitoring and regulatory mechanism of the health system and decentralization process, to improve access to the information and to establish proper complaints and feedback system from the community to ensure the effectiveness and sustainability of the interventions. Furthermore, more study needs to be conducted to evaluate the impact of the existing social accountability interventions in improving maternal health services in Nepal.


Author(s):  
Chengfang Liu ◽  
Linxiu Zhang ◽  
Yaojiang Shi ◽  
Huan ZHOU ◽  
Alexis Medina ◽  
...  

Purpose Many public health systems have struggled with the dual questions of (1) why the uptake rate of maternal health services is low among some subpopulations; and (2) how to raise it. The objective of this study is to assess the uptake rate of a new set of maternal health services in poor rural areas of China. Design/methodology/approach The analysis is based on the survey responses of women’s representatives and village cadres from almost 1000 villages in June 2012 as part of a wide-scale public health survey in Sichuan, Gansu and Yunnan provinces in the western part of China. Findings We find that the uptake rate of maternal health services (including in-hospital delivery, antenatal care visits and post-partum care visits) in poor rural areas of western China are far below average in China, and that the rates vary across provinces and ethnic groups. Our analyses demonstrate that distance, income, ethnicity and availability appear to be systematically correlated with low uptake rates of all maternal health services. Demand-side factors seem to be by far the most important sources of the differences between subpopulations. We also find that there is potential for creating a Conditional Cash Transfer program to improve the usage of maternal health services. Originality/value We believe that our results will contribute positively to the exploration of answers to the dual questions that many public health systems have struggled with (1) why the uptake rate of maternal health services is low among some subpopulations; and (2) how to raise it.


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