Journal Article

Does gender inequality matter for access to and utilization of maternal healthcare services in Bangladesh?

Oni, Fahmida Akter, Hossen, Sk Sharafat, Ahmed, Firoz

2021

نظرة عامة

There is a high prevalence of gender gap in Bangladesh which might affect women's likelihood to receive maternal healthcare services. In this backdrop, we aim to investigate how gender inequality measured by intrahousehold bargaining power (or autonomy) of women and their attitudes towards intimate partner violence (IPV) affects accessing and utilizing maternal health care services. We used Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey (BDHS) data of 2014 covering 5460 women who gave birth at least one child in the last three years preceding the survey. We performed logistic regression to estimate the effect of women's autonomy and their attitude towards IPV on access to and utilization of maternal healthcare services. Besides, we employed different channels to understand the heterogeneous effect of gender inequality on access to maternal healthcare services. We observed that women having autonomy positively influenced attaining five required antenatal care (ANC) services (AOR: 1.17; 95% CI: 0.98-1.41) and women's negative attitudes towards IPV were positively associated with five ANC services (AOR: 1.42; 95% CI: 1.02-1.97), sufficient ANC visits (COR: 1.55; CI: 1.19-2.01), skilled birth attendant (SBA) (AOR: 1.43; 95% CI: 1.05-1.94) and postnatal care (PNC) services (AOR: 1.44; 95% CI: 1.12-1.84). Besides, rural residency, religion, household wealth, education of both women and husband were found to have some of the important channels which were making stronger effect of gender inequality on access to maternal healthcare services. The findings of our study indicate a significant association between access to maternal healthcare services and women's autonomy as well as attitude towards IPV in Bangladesh. We, therefore, recommend to protect women from violence at home and mprove their intrahousehold bargaining power to increase their access to and utilization of required maternal healthcare services.

• الناشر: Public Library of Science,Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• موضوع: Adolescent / Adult / Aggression / Attitudes / Autonomy / Bangladesh - epidemiology / Biology and Life Sciences / Birth / Channels / Childbirth & labor / Decision making / Delivery, Obstetric - statistics & numerical data / Earth Sciences / Educational Status / Family violence / Female / Female-male relations / Gender / Gender aspects / Gender equality / Gender equity / Health aspects / Health care / Health care industry / Health services / Health Services Accessibility / Health surveys / Households / Humans / Intimate Partner Violence / Male / Maternal health services / Maternal Health Services - organization & administration / Maternal Health Services - statistics & numerical data / Medical care / Medicine and Health Sciences / Middle Aged / Patient Acceptance of Health Care - statistics & numerical data / People and Places / Polls & surveys / Postpartum period / Pregnancy / Prenatal Care - statistics & numerical data / Rural Health Services - organization & administration / Rural Health Services - statistics & numerical data / Rural Population - statistics & numerical data / Sex Factors / Social aspects / Social Sciences / Socioeconomic Factors / Surveys / Treatment Outcome / Utilization / Violence / Women / Young Adult