Situation Analysis of a New Effort of Community-Based Health Planning and Services (CHPS) for Maternal Health in Upper West Region in Rural Ghana

Chieko Matsubara (), Maxwell Ayindenaba Dalaba, Laata Latif Danchaka and Paul Welaga
Additional contact information
Chieko Matsubara: Bureau of International Medical Cooperation, National Center for Global Health and Medicine, 1-21-1 Toyama, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 162-8655, Japan
Maxwell Ayindenaba Dalaba: Centre for Non-Communicable Diseases Research, Institute of Health Research, University of Health and Allied Sciences, P.O. Box 31, Ho, Volta Region, Ghana
Laata Latif Danchaka: Wa Technical Institute, P.O. Box 238, Wa, Upper West Region, Ghana
Paul Welaga: Navrongo Health Research Centre, P.O. Box 114, Navrongo, Upper East Region, Ghana

IJERPH, 2023, vol. 20, issue 16, 1-10

Abstract: A free maternal health policy started in Ghana in 2008, however, health facility utilization is still low, and out-of-pocket payments (OOPPs) are putting households at risk of catastrophic expenditure. To improve this situation, some rural communities have assigned a midwife to a health post called community-based health planning and services (CHPS), where only assistant nurses are allocated. This study explored the effectiveness of the new approach in Upper West Region, Ghana. We conducted a cross-sectional study and interviewed women who gave birth in the last year. We systematically selected communities matched into four criteria: communities near CHPS (functional CHPS), communities near CHPS with a midwife (advanced CHPS), communities near a health centre, and communities without a health facility in their neighbourhood. In total, 534 women were interviewed: functional CHPS 104, advanced CHPS 131, near health centre 173, and no facility 126. About 78% of the women were 20 to 34 years old. About half of the women incurred OOPP, however, catastrophic payment (household spending > 5% of annual income) was significantly lower in advanced CHPS communities for normal delivery compared with the other three communities. The new local approach of assigning a midwife to CHPS functioned well, improving access to healthcare facilities for childbirth.

Keywords: child birth; CHPS; midwife; cost of delivery; out-of-pocket payment; free maternal health policy; facility utilization; Upper West Region; Ghana (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/20/16/6595/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/20/16/6595/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:20:y:2023:i:16:p:6595-:d:1219672

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().