Maternal health care utilization following the implementation of the free maternal health care policy in Ghana: analysis of Ghana demographic and health surveys 2008-2014.

ABSTRACT:

Background

In July 2008, Ghana introduced a 'free' maternal health care policy (FMHCP) through the national health insurance scheme (NHIS) to provide comprehensive antenatal, delivery and post-natal care services to pregnant women. In this study, we evaluated the 'free' policy impact on antenatal care uptake and facility-level delivery utilization since the policy inception.

Methods

The study used two rounds of repeated cross-sectional data from the Ghana Demographic and Health Survey (GDHS, 2008-2014) and constructed exposure variable of the FMHCP using mothers' national health insurance status as a proxy variable and another group of mothers who did not subscribe to the policy. We then generated the propensity scores of the two groups, ex-post, and matched them to determin

SUBMITTER: Azaare J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10870471 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature