Multilevel geospatial analysis of factors associated with unskilled birth attendance in Ghana

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 16; no. 6; p. e0253603
• Main Authors: Bediako, Vincent Bio, Boateng, Ebenezer N. K, Owusu, Bernard Afriyie, Dickson, Kwamena Sekyi
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: San Francisco Public Library of Science 25-06-2021; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Analysis; Biology and Life Sciences; Births; Childbirth; Childbirth & labor; Complications; Data analysis; Education; Fatalities; Geospatial data; Health care facilities; Health insurance; Households; Insurance coverage; Maternal & child health; Maternal mortality; Medicine and Health Sciences; Multilevel; Outliers (statistics); Patient outcomes; People and Places; Polls & surveys; Poverty; Pregnancy; Pregnancy complications; Regression models; Resource allocation; Secondary analysis; Social Sciences; Socioeconomics; Spatial analysis; Spatial distribution; Spatial variations; Unskilled labor; Womens health; Ghana; Africa; South Asia
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0253603

Background Globally, about 810 women die every day due to pregnancy and its related complications. Although the death of women during pregnancy or childbirth has declined from 342 deaths to 211 deaths per 100,000 live births between 2000 and 2017, maternal mortality is still higher, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, where 86% of all deaths occur. Methods A secondary analysis was carried out using the 2014 Ghana Demographic and Health Survey. A sample total of 4,290 women who had a live birth in the 5 years preceding the survey was included in the analysis. GIS software was used to explore the spatial distribution of unskilled birth attendance in Ghana. The Geographic Weighted Regression (GWR) was employed to model the spatial relationship of some predictor of unskilled birth attendance. Moreover, a multilevel binary logistic regression model was fitted to identify factors associated with unskilled birth attendance. Results In this study, unskilled birth attendance had spatial variations across the country. The hotspot, cluster and outlier analysis identified the concerned districts in the north-eastern part of Ghana. The GWR analysis identified different predictors of unskilled birth attendance across districts of Ghana. In the multilevel analysis, mothers with no education, no health insurance coverage, and mothers from households with lower wealth status had higher odds of unskilled birth attendance. Being multi and grand multiparous, perception of distance from the health facility as not a big problem, urban residence, women residing in communities with medium and higher poverty level had lower odds of unskilled birth attendance. Conclusion Unskilled birth attendance had spatial variations across the country. Areas with high levels of unskilled birth attendance had mothers who had no formal education, not health insured, mothers from poor households and communities, primiparous women, mothers from remote and border districts could get special attention in terms of allocation of resources including skilled human power, and improved access to health facilities.