Correlates of health facility utilization during childbirth by mothers. A case study of Busoga sub-region of Uganda
Abstract
The objective of the study was to find out the correlates of health facility utilization at childbirth by pregnant mothers in the Busoga sub-region of Eastern Uganda. The study utilized UDHS data for 2016 of a total population of 1726 women, women who delivered at their homes, other people’s homes, or other places were considered to have delivered out of a health facility, and women who used government hospitals, government health center, another public sector, private hospital/clinic and other were considered to have used a health facility (in- health-facility).
The study established that about 87% of the women gave birth outside health facilities, 8 in 10 women did not exceed primary education,9 in 10 women were above 35 years of age, 77% of the women were employed, 51% reported not finding a problem in accessing health facilities, and about 83% still believe in traditional health beliefs. Multi-variate analysis using logistic regression indicated that women who attained primary education were 1.6 times (OR=1.6072, P = 0.028, 95% CI =1.053-2.45) more likely to produce from health facilities than those with no education, and those with secondary education were four times (OR = 3.8241, P = 0.000, CI = 2.3464-6.2324) more likely to deliver from health facilities than those with no education, women with higher education were 6 times (OR= 5.6362, P = 0.000, CI = 2.7361 – 11.6100) more likely to deliver from a health facility as compared to those with no education.
Women aged between 26 -35, and those above 35 were 0.2 and 0.1 less likely to produce from a health facility as compared to those below 26 years of age respectively, women who were unemployed were 0.5 times (OR = 0.5369, P = 0.000, CI = 0.3900-0.7391) less likely to deliver from a health facility as compared to those who are employed, and those who believed in traditional health methods were 0.2 times (P = 0.035) less likely to use a health facility for a child delivery as compared to those who believed in traditional health methods.
In conclusion, emphasis should be on higher education, majority of the women employed, believed in traditional health beliefs implying that even if hospitals are established visits by women to these facilities will be only a few who attain higher education(3% of the total population)hence a need to change women's attitude about hospital use.