Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-lj6df Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-03T00:09:59.007Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

EXPLAINING THE GAP IN ANTENATAL CARE SERVICE UTILIZATION BETWEEN YOUNGER AND OLDER MOTHERS IN GHANA

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 July 2015

Sheila A. Boamah ,
Jonathan Amoyaw  and
Isaac Luginaah
Sheila A. Boamah*
Affiliation:
Arthur Labatt Family School of Nursing, Health Sciences Addition, University of Western Ontario, London, ON, Canada
Jonathan Amoyaw
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology, University of Western Ontario, London, ON, Canada
Isaac Luginaah
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, University of Western Ontario, London, ON, Canada
*
1Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

Over two-thirds of pregnant women (69%) have at least one antenatal care (ANC) coverage contact in sub-Saharan Africa. However, to achieve the full life-saving potential that ANC promises for women and babies, a nuanced understanding of age-specific gaps in utilization of ANC services is required. Using the 2008 Ghana Demographic and Health Survey of 1456 individuals, this study examined the disparities in the use of ANC services between younger and older mothers by applying four counterfactual decomposition techniques. The results show that cross-group differences in the explanatory variables largely account for the differentials in ANC service utilization between younger and older mothers. Birth order (parity) accounts for the largest share of the contribution to the overall explained gap in ANC utilization between the younger and older mothers, suggesting that ANC differentials between the two groups are probably due to biosocial factors. To a lesser extent, wealth status of the two groups also contributes to the overall explained gap in ANC service utilization. The policy implications of these findings are that in order to bridge the ANC service utilization gap between the two groups, policymakers must systematically address gaps in cross-group differences in the explanatory variables in order to increase the utilization of ANC to attain the minimum recommendation of four visits as per World Health Organization guidelines.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Biosocial Science , Volume 48 , Issue 3 , May 2016 , pp. 342 - 357
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press, 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Addai, I. (2000) Determinants of use of maternal–child health services in rural Ghana. Journal of Biosocial Science 32(1), 1–15.Google Scholar
Arthur, E. (2012) Wealth and antenatal care use: implications for maternal health care utilization in Ghana. Health Economics Review 2, 1–8.Google Scholar
Atunah-Jay, S. J., Pettinggell, S., Ohene, S. A., Micheal Oakes, J. & Borowsky, W. (2013) The relationship between antenatal provider type and maternal health care utilization in Ghana. Health Economics Review doi: 10.1186/2191-1991-2-14.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Babalola, S. (2014) Women’s education level, antenatal visits and the quality of skilled antenatal care: a study of three African Countries. Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved 25(1), 161–179.Google Scholar
Babalola, S. & Fatusi, A. (2009) Determinants of use of maternal health services in Nigeria – looking beyond individual and household factors. BMC Pregnancy & Childbirth 9(1), 43.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Banchani, E. & Tenkorang, E. Y. (2014) Occupational types and antenatal care attendance among women in Ghana. Health Care for Women International 35, 1040–1064.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bbaale, E. (2011) Factors influencing timing and frequency of antenatal care in Uganda. Australian Medical Journal 4(8), 431–438.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Buor, D. (2003) Mother’s education and childhood mortality in Ghana. Health Policy 64, 297–309.Google Scholar
Carroli, G., Rooney, C. & Villar, J. (2001) WHO programme to map the best reproductive health practices: how effective is antenatal care in preventing maternal mortality and serious morbidity? Paediatric and Perinatal Epidemiology 15(1), 1–42.Google Scholar
Cotton, J. (1988) On the decomposition of wage differentials. Review of Economics and Statistics 70(2), 236–243.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dixon, J., Tenkorang, E. & Luginaah, I. (2011) Ghana’s national health insurance: helping the poor or leaving them behind? Environment and Planning C: Government & Policy 29, 1102–1115.Google Scholar
Dixon, J., Tenkorang, E., Luginaah, I. N., Kuuire, V. Z. & Boateng, G. O. (2014) National health insurance scheme enrolment and antenatal care among women in Ghana: is there any relationship? Tropical Medicine & International Health 19(1), 98–106.Google Scholar
Doku, D., Neupane, S. & Doku, P. N. (2012) Factors associated with reproductive health care utilization among Ghanaian women. BMC International Health & Human Rights 12(1), 29.Google Scholar
Dzakpasu, S., Soremekun, S., Manu, A., Ten Asbroek, G., Tawiah, C., Hurt, L. et al. (2012) Impact of free delivery care on health facility delivery and insurance courage in Ghana’s Brong Ahafo region. PLoS One 7, e49430.Google Scholar
Fairlie, R. (2006) An extension of the Blinder–Oaxaca decomposition technique to logit and probit models. Journal of Economic and Social Measurement 30(4), 305–316.Google Scholar
Gage, A. (2007) Barriers to the utilization of maternal health care in rural Mali. Social Science & Medicine 65(8), 1666–1682.Google Scholar
Gabrysch, S., Cousens, S., Cox, J. & Campbell, O. M. R. (2011) The influence of distance and level of care on delivery place in rural Zambia: a study of linked national data in a geographic information system. PLoS Medicine 8(1), 1–12.Google Scholar
Greenaway, E. S., Leon, J. & Baker, D. P. (2012) Understanding the association between maternal education and use of health services in Ghana: exploring the role of health knowledge. Journal of Biosocial Science 44, 733–747.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hug, M. Z. & Tasnim, T. (2007) Maternal education and child healthcare in Bangladesh. Maternal Child Health Journal 13, 43–51.Google Scholar
Jann, B. (2008) A Stata implementation of the Blinder–Oaxaca decomposition. Stata Journal 8(4), 453–479.Google Scholar
Khanal, V., Adhikari, M., Karkee, R. & Gavidia, T. (2014) Factors associated with the utilization of postnatal care services among the mothers of Nepal: analysis of Nepal Demographic and Health Survey 2011. BMC Women’s Health 14(1), 19.Google Scholar
Koblinsky, M., Matthews, Z., Hussein, J., Mavalankar, D., Mridha, M. K., Anwar, I. & van Lerberghe, W. (2006) Going to scale with professional skilled care. The Lancet 368(9544), 1377–1386.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Magadi, M. A., Agwanda, A. O. & Obare, F. O. (2007) A comparative analysis of the use of maternal health services between teenagers and older mothers in sub-Saharan Africa: evidence from Demographic and Health Survey (DHS). Social Science & Medicine 64, 1311–1325.Google Scholar
Magadi, M. A., Madise, N. J. & Rodrigues, R. N. (2000) Frequency and timing of antenatal care in Kenya: explaining the variations between women of different communities. Social Science & Medicine 51, 551–561.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Masters, S. H., Burstein, R., Amofah, G., Abaogye, P., Kumar, S. & Hanlon, M. (2013) Travel time to maternity care and its effect on utilization in rural Ghana: a multilevel analysis. Social Science & Medicine 9, 147–154.Google Scholar
Navaneetham, K. & Dharmalingam, A. (2002) Utilization of maternal health care services in southern India. Social Science & Medicine 55, 1849–1869.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Neumark, D. (1988) Employers’ discriminatory behavior and the estimation of wage discrimination. Journal of Human Resources 23(3), 279–295.Google Scholar
Oaxaca, R. (1973) Male–female wage differentials in urban labor markets. International Economic Review 14(3), 693–709.Google Scholar
O’Donnell, O., Van Doorslaer, E., Wagstaff, A. & Lindelow, M. (2008) Analyzing Health Equity Using Household Survey Data. A Guide to Techniques and their Implementation . International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/The World Bank.Google Scholar
Owoo, N. S. & Lambon-Quayefio, M. P. (2013) National health insurance, social influence and antenatal care use in Ghana. Health Economics Review 3, 19.Google Scholar
Peters, D., Garg, A., Bloom, G., Walker, D., Brieger, W. & Rahman, M. H. (2008) Poverty and access to health care in developing countries. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 1136, 161–171.Google Scholar
Rai, R. K., Singh, P. K., Kumar, C. & Singh, L. (2013) Factors associated with the utilization of maternal health care services among adolescent women in Malawi. Home Health Care Services Quarterly 32, 106–125.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Reimers, C. W. (1983) Labor market discrimination against Hispanic and black men. Review of Economics and Statistics 65(4), 570–579.Google Scholar
StataCorp (2013) Stata Statistical Software: Release 13. StataCorp LP, College Station, TX.Google Scholar
UNICEF (2013) Levels and Trends in Child Mortality: Report. United Nations Children’s Fund, New York.Google Scholar
WHO (2003) Antenatal Care in Developing Countries: Promises, Achievements and Missed Opportunities: An Analysis of Trends, Levels, and Differentials: 1990–2001. WHO & UNICEF, Geneva, New York.Google Scholar
WHO (2007) Standards for Maternal and Newborn Health: Provision of Effective Antenatal Care (Section 1.6). World Health Organization, Geneva. URL: http://whqlibdoc.who.int/hq/2007/a91272.pdf.Google Scholar
Witter, S. & Garshong, B. (2009) Something old or something new? Social health insurance in Ghana. BMC International Health & Human Rights doi: 10.1186/1472-698X-9-20.Google Scholar