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Effect of National Health Insurance Holding on the Choice of Health Facility for Childbirth in Ghana

Received: 2 January 2016     Accepted: 13 January 2016     Published: 29 January 2016
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Abstract

Maternal and child mortalities are among major health problems facing developing countries such as Ghana. Most of these deaths can be avoided by utilization of maternity health care services. The study examines the effect of health insurance holding and other socioeconomic and demographic factors on the choice of health facility for childbirth in Ghana. The study used data from the 2008 Ghana Demographic and Health survey. Data were analyzed for descriptive statistics as well as a Multinomial Logistic Regression for identification of factors that influence delivery in health facility. The study results have shown that, holding of health insurance and wealth significantly influences expectant mother’s decision to use government health facilities for childbirth. Also, the study revealed considerable variations in region and between rural and urban utilization of this services in Ghana. It is recommended that in order to improve the utilization of health facility for childbirth services and hence maternal health care utilization, there is the need to improve public awareness and efforts should also be taking by policy makers to integrate the private sector properly into the National Health Insurance scheme. Policy should also target mothers who have had the experience of child birth on the need to use health care facility services for each pregnancy. The government and other service providers (NGOs, religious institutions and private providers) may endeavor to improve on the distribution of health facilities, human resources, good roads and necessary infrastructure among other things in order to facilitate easy access to health care providers especially for rural dwellers.

Published in Science Journal of Public Health (Volume 4, Issue 1)
DOI 10.11648/j.sjph.20160401.14
Page(s) 26-36
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2016. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Maternal Mortality, National Health Insurance, Ghana, Childbirth and Health Facility

References
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Cite This Article
  • APA Style

    Salifu Mubarik, Seidu Al-hassan, Nkechi S. Owoo, Boakye-Yiadom Louis. (2016). Effect of National Health Insurance Holding on the Choice of Health Facility for Childbirth in Ghana. Science Journal of Public Health, 4(1), 26-36. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.sjph.20160401.14

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    ACS Style

    Salifu Mubarik; Seidu Al-hassan; Nkechi S. Owoo; Boakye-Yiadom Louis. Effect of National Health Insurance Holding on the Choice of Health Facility for Childbirth in Ghana. Sci. J. Public Health 2016, 4(1), 26-36. doi: 10.11648/j.sjph.20160401.14

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    AMA Style

    Salifu Mubarik, Seidu Al-hassan, Nkechi S. Owoo, Boakye-Yiadom Louis. Effect of National Health Insurance Holding on the Choice of Health Facility for Childbirth in Ghana. Sci J Public Health. 2016;4(1):26-36. doi: 10.11648/j.sjph.20160401.14

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  • @article{10.11648/j.sjph.20160401.14,
      author = {Salifu Mubarik and Seidu Al-hassan and Nkechi S. Owoo and Boakye-Yiadom Louis},
      title = {Effect of National Health Insurance Holding on the Choice of Health Facility for Childbirth in Ghana},
      journal = {Science Journal of Public Health},
      volume = {4},
      number = {1},
      pages = {26-36},
      doi = {10.11648/j.sjph.20160401.14},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.sjph.20160401.14},
      eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.sjph.20160401.14},
      abstract = {Maternal and child mortalities are among major health problems facing developing countries such as Ghana. Most of these deaths can be avoided by utilization of maternity health care services. The study examines the effect of health insurance holding and other socioeconomic and demographic factors on the choice of health facility for childbirth in Ghana. The study used data from the 2008 Ghana Demographic and Health survey. Data were analyzed for descriptive statistics as well as a Multinomial Logistic Regression for identification of factors that influence delivery in health facility. The study results have shown that, holding of health insurance and wealth significantly influences expectant mother’s decision to use government health facilities for childbirth. Also, the study revealed considerable variations in region and between rural and urban utilization of this services in Ghana. It is recommended that in order to improve the utilization of health facility for childbirth services and hence maternal health care utilization, there is the need to improve public awareness and efforts should also be taking by policy makers to integrate the private sector properly into the National Health Insurance scheme. Policy should also target mothers who have had the experience of child birth on the need to use health care facility services for each pregnancy. The government and other service providers (NGOs, religious institutions and private providers) may endeavor to improve on the distribution of health facilities, human resources, good roads and necessary infrastructure among other things in order to facilitate easy access to health care providers especially for rural dwellers.},
     year = {2016}
    }
    

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  • TY  - JOUR
    T1  - Effect of National Health Insurance Holding on the Choice of Health Facility for Childbirth in Ghana
    AU  - Salifu Mubarik
    AU  - Seidu Al-hassan
    AU  - Nkechi S. Owoo
    AU  - Boakye-Yiadom Louis
    Y1  - 2016/01/29
    PY  - 2016
    N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.sjph.20160401.14
    DO  - 10.11648/j.sjph.20160401.14
    T2  - Science Journal of Public Health
    JF  - Science Journal of Public Health
    JO  - Science Journal of Public Health
    SP  - 26
    EP  - 36
    PB  - Science Publishing Group
    SN  - 2328-7950
    UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.sjph.20160401.14
    AB  - Maternal and child mortalities are among major health problems facing developing countries such as Ghana. Most of these deaths can be avoided by utilization of maternity health care services. The study examines the effect of health insurance holding and other socioeconomic and demographic factors on the choice of health facility for childbirth in Ghana. The study used data from the 2008 Ghana Demographic and Health survey. Data were analyzed for descriptive statistics as well as a Multinomial Logistic Regression for identification of factors that influence delivery in health facility. The study results have shown that, holding of health insurance and wealth significantly influences expectant mother’s decision to use government health facilities for childbirth. Also, the study revealed considerable variations in region and between rural and urban utilization of this services in Ghana. It is recommended that in order to improve the utilization of health facility for childbirth services and hence maternal health care utilization, there is the need to improve public awareness and efforts should also be taking by policy makers to integrate the private sector properly into the National Health Insurance scheme. Policy should also target mothers who have had the experience of child birth on the need to use health care facility services for each pregnancy. The government and other service providers (NGOs, religious institutions and private providers) may endeavor to improve on the distribution of health facilities, human resources, good roads and necessary infrastructure among other things in order to facilitate easy access to health care providers especially for rural dwellers.
    VL  - 4
    IS  - 1
    ER  - 

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Author Information
  • Institute of Distance Education, University of Cape Coast, Tamale Center, Ghana

  • Institute for Continuing Education and Interdisciplinary Research, University for Development Studies, Tamale, Ghana

  • Department of Economics, University of Ghana, Legon, Ghana

  • Department of Economics, University of Ghana, Legon, Ghana

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