Factors influencing maternal health care seeking behavior among women of reproductive age with disability

Abstract

Introduction: Over one billion people worldwide and 19% in Uganda are said to live with some form of disability (WHO, 2018).This study examined the health seeking behavior for maternal health services by describing the level of uptake of maternal health care, individual, community and health facility related factors that influence the decision to seek maternity services among women with disability of reproductive age in Wakiso district. Methods: Mixed methods of data collection and analysis were used. Quantitative data were collected from sample of 191 women with disability while qualitative data were collected from six key informants with midwives and in charges at selected facilities and six focus group discussions with VHTs and relatives of WWDs in Busiro South. Data was entered into EPI-DATA (version 3.2) software and analyzed using SPSS. level of access to maternal health care was presented with 95% confidence interval while Logistic regression was used to determine the factors influencing the decision to seek maternity services among women with disability and Statistical significance was determined at a p-value <0.05. Raw qualitative data recordings were transcribed and then themes were generated depending on the narrative. Results: The health seeking behaviour (ANC attendance and place of delivery) among women with disability in Busiro South HSD was influenced by parity; women who had delivered less than three children were found to Attend ANC and deliver at health facilities more compared to those who had more than three children. The distance to the health facility further influenced maternal health care ,a disabled woman living less than 5km from a health facility was more likely to seek ANC (OR 4.449; 95% CI: .141-140.075) and delivered at health facilities OR 4.546; 95% CI: 1.597-12.938) more compared to those who lived beyond 5km. The mode of delivery, friendliness of the health workers, cultural beliefs and perceptions further influenced the maternal health seeking behavior. Conclusion: Health seeking behavior among women with disability is influenced by a combination of various factors so effort should be made to reduce the above barriers. Recommendations: There is need to increase awareness to multi-parous women with disability and communities so to improve uptake of health seeking behaviour for maternal health. Distance should be reduced by equipping Health centre threes and twos with equipments and midwives