Back to Search
Start Over
Women's decision-making autonomy and utilisation of maternal healthcare services: results from the Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey.
- Source :
-
BMJ open [BMJ Open] 2017 Sep 07; Vol. 7 (9), pp. e017142. Date of Electronic Publication: 2017 Sep 07. - Publication Year :
- 2017
-
Abstract
- Objectives: The aim of this study was to determine the association between women's decision-making power and utilisation of maternal healthcare services (MHS) among Bangladeshi women.<br />Settings: This is a nationally representative survey that encompassed Dhaka, Rajshahi, Rangpur, Chittagong, Khulna, Barisal and Sylhet in Bangladesh. Sample households were selected by a two-stage stratification technique. First, 207 clusters in urban areas and 393 in rural areas were selected for 600 enumeration areas with proportional probability. In the second stage, on average 30 households were selected systematically from the enumeration areas. Finally, 17 989 households were selected for the survey of which 96% were interviewed successfully.<br />Participants: Cross-sectional data on 4309 non-pregnant women were collected from Bangladesh demographic and health survey 2014. Decision-making status on respondent's own healthcare, large household purchases, having a say on child's healthcare and visiting to family or relatives were included in the analysis.<br />Results: Prevalence of at least four antenatal attendance, facility delivery and postnatal check-up were respectively 32.6% (95% CI 31.2 to 34), 40.6% (95% CI 39.13 to 42.07) and 66.3% (95% CI 64.89 to 67.71). Compared with women who could make decisions alone, women in the urban areas who had to decide on their healthcare with husband/partner had 20% (95% CI 0.794 to 1.799) higher odds of attending at least four antenatal visits and those in rural areas had 35% (95% CI 0.464 to 0.897) lower odds of attending at least four antenatal visits. Women in urban and rural areas had respectively 43% (95% CI 0.941 to 2.169) and 28% (95% CI 0.928 to 1.751) higher odds of receiving postnatal check-up when their health decisions were made jointly with their husband/partner.<br />Conclusion: Neither making decisions alone, nor deciding jointly with husband/partner was always positively associated with the utilisation of all three types of MHS. This study concludes that better spousal cooperation on household and health issues could lead to higher utilisation of MHS services.<br />Competing Interests: Competing interests: None declared.<br /> (© Article author(s) (or their employer(s) unless otherwise stated in the text of the article) 2017. All rights reserved. No commercial use is permitted unless otherwise expressly granted.)
- Subjects :
- Adolescent
Adult
Bangladesh
Cross-Sectional Studies
Family Characteristics
Female
Humans
Logistic Models
Pregnancy
Rural Population
Socioeconomic Factors
Young Adult
Decision Making
Health Surveys statistics & numerical data
Maternal Health Services statistics & numerical data
Personal Autonomy
Prenatal Care statistics & numerical data
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 2044-6055
- Volume :
- 7
- Issue :
- 9
- Database :
- MEDLINE
- Journal :
- BMJ open
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 28882921
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2017-017142