Open AccessBarriers and Facilitators to Accessing Health Care Services among Married Women in Ethiopia: a Multi-level Analysis of the Ethiopia Demographic and Health Survey
Author(s) -
Betregiorgis Zegeye,
Nicholas Kofi Adjei,
Bright Opoku Ahinkorah,
Edward Kwabena Ameyaw,
Eugene Budu,
AbdulAziz Seidu,
Dina Idriss-Wheeler,
Sanni Yaya
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
international journal of translational medical research and public health
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2576-9502
pISSN - 2576-9499
DOI - 10.21106/ijtmrph.380
Subject(s) - socioeconomic status , medicine , odds , odds ratio , logistic regression , marital status , health care , developing country , community health , demography , environmental health , gerontology , public health , population , nursing , economic growth , pathology , sociology , economics
Background and Objective: Access to health care services is a major challenge to women and children in many developing countries such as Ethiopia. In this study, we investigated the individual- and community-level factors associated with barriers to accessing health care services among married women in Ethiopia.Methods: Data from the 2016 Ethiopia demographic and health survey on 9,824 married women of reproductive age (15-49 years) were analyzed. Multilevel logistic regression models were used to assess individual- and community-level factors associated with barriers to access health care services. Regression analysis results revealed adjusted odds ratios at 95% confidence intervals.Results: Over two-thirds (71.8%) of married women in Ethiopia reported barriers to accessing health care services. Some of the individual-level factors that were associated with lower odds of reporting barriers to access health care services include: having secondary education (aOR=0.49, 95% CI: 0.32-0.77), being in the richest quintile (aOR=0.34, 95% CI: 0.22-0.54), and indicating wife-beating as unjustified (aOR=0.66, 95% CI:0.55-0.81). Among the community-level factors, high community-level literacy (aOR=0.56, 95% CI: 0.34-0.92) and moderate community socioeconomic status (aOR=0.62, 95% CI: 0.45-0.85) were significantly associated with lower odds of reporting barriers to access health care services.Conclusion and Implications for Translation: The findings revealed high barriers to access health care services, and both individual- and community-level factors were significant contributing predictors. Therefore, it is important to consider multidimensional strategies and interventions to facilitate access to health care services in Ethiopia. Copyright © Zegeye et al. Published by Global Health and Education Projects, Inc. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License CC BY 4.0.