Breaking Barriers to Healthcare Access: A Multilevel Analysis of Individual- and Community-Level Factors Affecting Women’s Access to Healthcare Services in Benin

Betregiorgis Zegeye, Ziad El-Khatib, Edward Kwabena Ameyaw, Abdul-Aziz Seidu, Bright Opoku Ahinkorah, Mpho Keetile and Sanni Yaya
Additional contact information
Betregiorgis Zegeye: HaSET Maternal and Child Health Research Program, Shewarobit Field Office, Shewarobit P.O. Box 127, Ethiopia
Ziad El-Khatib: Department of Global Public Health, Karolinska Institutet, SE-171 77 Stockholm, Sweden
Edward Kwabena Ameyaw: School of Public Health, Faculty of Health, University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2007, Australia
Abdul-Aziz Seidu: Department of Population and Health, University of Cape Coast, Cape Coast, PMB 0494, Ghana
Bright Opoku Ahinkorah: School of Public Health, Faculty of Health, University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2007, Australia
Mpho Keetile: Department of Population Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Botswana, Private Bag UB 0022, Gaborone, Botswana
Sanni Yaya: School of International Development and Global Studies, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON K1N 6N5, Canada

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 2, 1-15

Abstract: Background: In low-income countries such as Benin, most people have poor access to healthcare services. There is scarcity of evidence about barriers to accessing healthcare services in Benin. Therefore, we examined the magnitude of the problem of access to healthcare services and its associated factors. Methods: We utilized data from the 2017–2018 Benin Demographic and Health Survey (n = 15,928). We examined the associations between the demographic and socioeconomic characteristics of women using multilevel logistic regression. The outcome variable for the study was problem of access to healthcare service. Adjusted odds ratios (AORs) with 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) were estimated. Results: Overall, 60.4% of surveyed women had problems in accessing healthcare services. Partner’s education (AOR = 0.70; 95% CI; 0.55–0.89), economic status (AOR = 0.59; 95% CI; 0.47–0.73), marital status (AOR = 0.44; 95% CI; 0.39–0.51), and parity (AOR = 1.85; 95% CI; 1.45–2.35) were significant individual-level factors associated with problem of access to healthcare. Region (AOR = 5.24; 95% CI; 3.18–8.64) and community literacy level (AOR = 0.69; 95% CI; 0.51–0.94) were the main community-level risk factors. Conclusions: Enhancing husband education through adult education programs, economic empowerment of women, enhancing national education coverage, and providing priority for unmarried and multipara women need to be considered. Additionally, there is the need to ensure equity-based access to healthcare services across regions.

Keywords: access; healthcare services; barriers; risk factors; global health; reproductive health (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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