The Socioeconomic Factors that Determine Women Utilization of Healthcare Services in Nigeria

Abstract

Measures of maternal deaths are critical as they reflect a woman's access to essential services during pregnancy, childbirth, general health, nutritional status, getting to reproductive care services as way as family planning. The indices such as economic status, education, birth level, and birth interval are key predictors of health services utilization. Given the inequalities in healthcare utilization in developing nations, the study looks at what determines pregnant women utilization of such services in Nigeria. Adopting Poisson Regression Model on Demographic Health Survey (DHS) data, the study observes that the wealth of pregnant women positively influences their health care utilizations while an increase in the household size has a negative effect on the capability to access health care. In line with the findings, the study suggests need for positive policies and implementation strategies that will increase the opportunity for women to have proper health education which would have an impact on utilization of antenatal visits among pregnant women in Nigeria.