Socioeconomic factors differentiating maternal and child health-seeking behavior in rural Bangladesh: a cross-sectional analysis

Ruhul Amin, Johns Hopkins University
Nirali M. Shah, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

The objective of this study was to examine socio-economic differentials in health-seeking behavior in relatively remote villages. Data from 3,498 randomly selected currently married women within 128 rural villages in three divisions of Bangladesh were collected in 2006. Multiple logistic analyses was used to examine the following curative and preventive health-seeking behaviors: antenatal care, postnatal care, child delivery care, mother’s receipt of Vitamin A postpartum, newborn baby care, care during recent child fever episodes, and maternal coverage by tetanus toxoid (TT). A household’s relative poverty status, as reflected by a wealth index, was a major determinant of these behaviors. Mothers in the highest wealth quintile were significantly more likely to use modern trained providers for antenatal care, post natal care, birth attendant and newborn child care than those in the poorest quintile. The differentials were less pronounced for other socio-economic factors. Within rural areas of Bangladesh wealth differentials remain pronounced.