Interplay between women’s perceived quality of, and access to care and household wealth on the utilization of maternity services among the urban poor

Rhoune Adhiambo Ochako, African Population and Health Research Center (APHRC)

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how women’s perceived quality of, and access to care affect utilization of maternal health services among the urban poor, and the extent to which their effect vary by household wealth. We used ordered logit model and data from a study conducted in the informal settlements of Nairobi, Kenya. The outcome variable is place of delivery defined as a three-category ordered variable. Preliminary results show that the influence of women’s perceived quality of, and access to care is strong, women with a high perception of access being more likely to deliver in appropriate health facilities. Interactions between household wealth index and perceived quality of care indicate that better perception is associated with better use of delivery services among all wealth groups. By contrast, interactions between perceived access and wealth index reveal that high perception was associated with poorer use amongst the poorest households.