Political-economic Transitions and the Changing Context of Maternal Health Access in Tanzania: Evidence from DHS Data

Abstract

This paper highlights how the effect of household socioeconomic status on utilization of maternal health services changes over time concomitant with transformations of the social context, such as political economic transitions in the case of Tanzania. Using pooled data from four rounds of Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) from Tanzania, this paper applies multilevel logistic regressions to examine how the effect of household wealth on utilization of medically-assisted birth delivery services (controlling for individual attributes) is mediated by place characteristics (regional wealth and urban/rural residence) and period (liberalization era 1990s vs. Millennium Development Goals era 2000s). With implications on health inequality in transition economies, the analysis finds statistically significant interaction effects between household wealth and place characteristics. The analysis also finds interaction effects between household wealth and period.