Multidimensional Socioeconomic Deprivations of Maternal Health Care Services Utilisation: Evidence from Bangladesh

Abstract

 This paper examines the combined effect of three socioeconomic deprivations: education, wealth, and health on the utilisation of maternal health care services (MHCSs) among Bangladeshi women using the data of Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey 2014. Both bivariate and multivariate statistical analyses were employed in this study. Multivariable logistic regression analysis is used to examine the effect of the multidimensional socioeconomic deprivations on the use of MHCSs. Of the women who had given at least one live birth in the three years preceding the survey, 43% were non-deprived by any dimension; 31% were deprived in one, 20% in two and 6% in all three dimensions. The prevalence of receiving four or more antenatal care (ANC) services was 31%; 38% used facility-based delivery (FBD) and 42% sought skilled birth assistance (SBA). When education and wealth deprivations were combined, women were significantly (P<0.01) least likely to seek assistance from SBA (OR=0.18, 95% CI: 0.14-0.24) and FBD (OR=0.17, 95% CI: 0.12-0.22); and when all three deprivations were combined women were less likely to receive ANC at least once (OR=0.16, 95% CI: 0.12-0.22) than those who were not deprived. Programmes should be undertaken to expand maternal health voucher schemes in more sub-districts and quality of care should be ensured for equal accessibility and availability of MHCSs targeting deprived and disadvantaged areas and women to ensure safe motherhood practices in Bangladesh. Our findings show that the situation of maternal health care in Bangladesh is not satisfactory.Antenatal care