Barriers limiting women’s access to primary healthcare centers in rural Nigerian communities
Keywords:
PHCs, rural women, demand, supply, barriersAbstract
This paper investigated the demand and supply-side barriers that limit women's access to Primary Health care centers (PHCs) in eight rural communities in Delta State, Southern Nigeria. The study is a cross-sectional household and health facility survey. Structured questionnaire and qualitative site assessment tool were used in collecting data for the study. Multiple response technique was use to elicit information on reasons for use and non-use of PHCs for maternal care needs. The site assessment report showed that the four PHCs assessed were lacking in critical infrastructure, medical equipment and human personnel. The multiple response techniques showed that reasons why women did not utilize maternal care services in PHCs were poor quality of care, cost of services too high, family members/husband disapproved it and distance from home to PHCs was too far. The site assessment showed that the PHCs do not measure up to internationally- recommended standard. The study concluded that demand and supply constraints interact in limiting rural women’s access to PHCs and as such pragmatic interventions that simultaneously address both sides of the barriers should be implemented.Downloads
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