School of Mathematics, Statistics and Computer Science, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 4001, South Africa.
Reprod Health. 2021 Oct 30;18(1):216. doi: 10.1186/s12978-021-01268-8.
There has been a substantial improvement in reducing maternal mortality in the Sub-Saharan African region. The vast rural-urban gap in maternal health outcomes, however, is obscured by this average achievement. This study attempts to measure the contribution of identified risk factors to describe the average rural-urban difference in the use of antenatal care, health facilities for delivery, and health professional assistance at delivery.
To achieve this objective, we used descriptive analysis and Fairlie non-linear decomposition method to quantify covariates' contribution in explaining the urban-rural difference in maternal healthcare services utilisation.
The study's finding shows much difference between urban and rural areas in the use of maternal healthcare services. Socio-economic factors such as household wealth index, exposure to media, and educational level of women and their husbands/partners contributed the most in explaining the gap between urban and rural areas in healthcare services utilisation.
Interventions to bridge the gap between urban and rural areas in maternal healthcare services utilisation in Sub-Saharan Africa should be centred towards socio-economic empowerment. Government can enforce targeted awareness campaigns to encourage women in rural communities in Sub-Sharan Africa to take the opportunity and use the available maternal health care services to be at par with their counterparts in urban areas.
撒哈拉以南非洲地区在降低孕产妇死亡率方面取得了实质性进展。然而，孕产妇健康结果在城乡之间存在巨大差距，这掩盖了这一平均成就。本研究试图通过衡量确定的风险因素的贡献来描述在使用产前护理、分娩时的医疗设施以及分娩时的专业医疗人员协助方面城乡之间的平均差异。
为了实现这一目标，我们使用描述性分析和费尔利非线性分解方法来量化协变量对解释孕产妇医疗保健服务利用城乡差异的贡献。
研究结果表明，城乡地区在孕产妇医疗保健服务的使用方面存在很大差异。社会经济因素，如家庭财富指数、媒体接触程度以及妇女及其丈夫/伴侣的教育水平，在解释城乡地区在医疗服务利用方面的差距方面贡献最大。
为弥合撒哈拉以南非洲地区城乡孕产妇医疗保健服务利用方面的差距，应将干预措施集中在社会经济赋权方面。政府可以实施有针对性的宣传运动，鼓励撒哈拉以南非洲农村社区的妇女抓住机会利用现有的孕产妇保健服务，使其与城市地区的同行相媲美。
