Predictors of skilled maternal health services utilizations: A case of rural women in Ethiopia.

Background: Maternal health services are affected by complex factors from one setting to another. Consequently, health planners should prioritize different interventions and design appropriate programs to enhance maternal health services utilization. Results of prior studies are conflicting. Furthermore, only few studies were done from antenatal to postnatal continuum of care in Ethiopia.

Objectives: This study aimed to assess prevalence and predictors of skilled maternal health services utilization at Dale-Wonsho health and demographic surveillance site of the Hawassa University, South Ethiopia, in 2019.

Methods: A community based cross sectional study was conducted from January 1-30; 2019. A total of 682 women who gave birth in the last twelve months were selected by using a two stage sampling technique. Data were collected through face to face interview. Data were entered into Epidata version 3.1. Then, they were exported and analyzed by SPSS version 22. Bi-variable logistic regression analysis was done and variables with p-value less than 0.05 were considered as candidate for multivariable logistic regression analysis. Adjusted Odds Ratios (AOR) with 95% CI were computed, and p-value less than 0.01 was computed to determine the level of significance.

Result: Prevalence of antenatal care, institutional delivery and postnatal care utilizations were 69.1%, 52.1% and 32.7% respectively. Educated women (AOR = 4.72, 95%CI,2.82,7.9), household training (AOR = 8.52,95%CI = 5.5,13.1), middle wealth quantile(AOR = 0.8,95%CI,0.4-0.7), being richest wealth quantile (AOR = 0.16;95%CI = 0.06,0.41) and pregnancy plan (AOR = 3.65,95%CI,1.67-8.0) were factors positively associated with antenatal care utilization. Husband education (AOR = 4.96,95CI,3.08-8.0), and antenatal care (AOR = 5.9; 95%CI,3.87,9.1) were factors associated with institutional delivery. Maternal education (AOR = 2.5,95CI,1.4-4.4), information about postnatal care service utilization (AOR = 3.6,95CI,2.1,6.2) and women autonomy(AOR = 6.1,95CI,3.8,9.7) were positively associated with postnatal care service.

Conclusion: Prevalence of antenatal care, institutional delivery and postnatal care services were lower than the targeted plan. Policy makers should focus on capacity building of women both economically and academically. So, women should be more autonomous to utilize health services effectively. Moreover, awareness creation among women should be enhanced about maternal health service.