Abstract
This article examined the association between household consumer durable assets and maternal health-seeking behavior. Several studies have suggested a relationship between households’ socioeconomic status (SES) and health outcomes. However, SES is a multidimensional concept that encompasses variables, such as wealth, education, and income. By grouping these variables together as one construct, prior studies have not provided enough insight into possible independent associations with health outcomes. This study used data from the 2008 Ghana Demographic and Health Survey of 2,065 women aged between 15 and 49 years to examine the association between household consumer durables (a component of SES) and maternal health-seeking behavior in Ghana. Results from a set of generalized linear models indicated that household consumer durable assets were positively associated with four measures of maternal health-seeking behaviors, namely, seeking prenatal care from skilled health personnel, delivery by skilled birth attendant, place of delivery, and the number of antenatal visits. Also, households with more assets whose residents lived in urban areas were more likely to use skilled health personnel before and during delivery, and at an approved health facility, compared those who lived in rural areas. Implications for health interventions and policies that focus on the most vulnerable households are discussed.
Highlights
Human health and wellbeing are important ingredients in the economic and social development of societies and nations
To test Chowa, Ansong and Masa’s (2010) postulation, this study examines the association between household consumer durable assets and maternal health seeking behaviour in Ghana
This study finds that ownership of household consumer durables are significantly associated with preventive and precautionary practice by expectant mothers in Ghana
Summary
Human health and wellbeing are important ingredients in the economic and social development of societies and nations. A WHO report in 2012 suggests that most (99%) of these deaths occur in developing countries, especially in predominately rural and poor communities (WHO, 2012) This is primarily due to the lack of access to skilled routine obstetric and emergency care before, during, and after childbirth (Erim, Kolapo and Resch 2012). The MAF is the Ghana government and Ministry of Health (MoH) framework to intensify efforts to overcome bottleneck in implement evidencedbased interventions around family planning, skilled delivery and emergency obstetric and newborn care in Ghana Despite this achievement, it is feared that Ghana will still not achieve the MDG target (i.e., MDG goal 5A) of reducing by three quarters, between 1990 and 2015, the maternal mortality ratio which stood at 580 per 100,000 live births (Andoh, 2014). In order for Ghana to achieve MDG target 5A2 it is vital that the health seeking behaviour of pregnant women members are given the needed attention so as to help improve practices that engender healthy antenatal and child delivery
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