Quantitative and qualitative assessment of maternal and child health services among hard-to-reach communities in Adamawa State, Nigeria

Abstract

Background: Recent global reports highlighted the significance of improving the quality of healthcare delivery in all settings, including rural and hard-to-reach communities, as a central strategy for attaining sustainable development goals in universal health coverage. Objectives: This study aimed to assess and document relevant data associated with delivering qualitative Maternal and Child health services in the HTR communities using carefully selected indicators. Methods: The study used a mixed-design approach of quantitative and qualitative methods. Results: This study report high performance on the first antenatal visit (ANC 1), use of modern contraceptives (CPR), Penta 3, measles vaccination coverage, and, Low dropout rate also noticed in Penta 3, thus signifying a generally good performance in all the Local Government areas. Furthermore, Yola South, Fufore, Toungo, Ganye and Michika LGA were found to be the best performing LGAs on the selected maternal and Child indicators, namely: (ANC1), ANC4, ANC8, Institutional delivery rate, and Contraceptive Prevalence Rate (CPR), while Gombi, Guyuk and Madagali LGAs were the poorest performing LGAs. The poor performance of the fore mentioned LGAs was associated with human and environmental interferences: ongoing security challenges, high HTR communities due to mountains and riverine, low level of education, inadequate outreach services during the period under review, poverty, lack of adequate emergency transport system, inadequate HRH, inadequate and poor infrastructure, many communities lack a comprehensive PHC. Conclusion: The assessment highlights LGAs with low utilization of MCH services in HTR communities in Adamawa State, the reasons for the low coverage, and the possible strategies for increased utilization of these services.