DETERMINANTS OF THE UTILIZATION OF MATERNAL HEALTH SERVICES IN MYANMAR

Abstract

This study explored determinants of the utilization of three types of maternal health services in Myanmar: antenatal care (ANC), institutional delivery, and postnatal care (PNC), testing in particular the predisposing factors, enabling factors and perceived need factors. This study used a secondary dataset drawn from the Myanmar Demographic and Health Survey 2015-16 (MDHS). In this nationally representative survey, the number of households that were originally involved was 12,500, among which 12,885 women and 4,737 men were interviewed. The final sample used for analyses in this study consisted of over 3,800 women who had delivered at least one child within 5 years preceding the survey. Factors associated with the utilization of maternal health services were examined with logistic and ordered logit regressions. The results suggested that, among predisposing factors, age of mothers and levels of education of both mothers and their husbands were generally positively correlated with all three maternal health services. Parity of women was negatively correlated with all the services. Among enabling factors, household wealth had a strong and positive correlation with all three maternal health services. Correspondingly, rural residence had, as expected, a negative correlation with maternal health care utilization. Finally, among perceived need factors, having a complicated (twin or multiple) pregnancy had a significant and positive correlation with the utilization of maternal health services. The results altogether indicated a clear linkage between education and economic well-being, on the one hand, and the utilization of maternal health services (and implicitly better health outcomes), on the other, in Myanmar.