Utilisation of maternal health services by adolescent mothers in Kenya: analysis of the demographic health survey 2008–2009

Abstract

Adolescent MHS utilisation in Kenya is an inequality issue. To address this, focus should be on the poorest, least educated, rural-dwelling adolescent mothers living in the most disadvantaged communities.

Maternal health services utilisation by Kenyan adolescent mothers: Analysis of the Demographic Health Survey 2014

“…Education level of partner was significant for ANC utilisation alone while parity was significant for both SBA and PNC. This is partly similar to findings based on the 2008-2009 KDHS [10]. However, two new notable findings were that parity was found to be significant for SBA and PNC utilisation and that religion was significant for ANC and SBA utilisation.…”

“…It is entirely conceivable that education of the adolescent mother was a significant factor for ANC and SBA in our study, like in the previous study [10]. Though this empirical evidence suggests that there is an association between education and this outcome of utilisation, the pathway that links both influence and outcome is not entirely clear.…”

“…We found that MHS utilisation rates amongst Kenyan adolescent mothers were 93%, 65%, 92% for ANC, SBA and PNC respectively. This is an overall improvement compared to previous estimates that were based on the 2008-2009 KDHS which showed utilisation rates of 86% for ANC, 48% for SBA and 86% for PNC [10]. Clearly, there is still a need to understand this persistent under-utilisation of SBA in comparison to utilisation of ANC and PNC.…”

“…However, it appears that initiatives such as the free maternity services being implemented by the Kenyan government since 2013 [17] may be contributing to this increased rates of MHS utilisation, especially as it addresses the financial challenges to SBA utilisation that adolescent mothers reported in the 2008-09 KDHS [10]. A 2015 report revealed that the free maternity services initiative had led to a 22% and 17% increase in facility based normal and caesarean section deliveries respectively [18].…”

“…In the context of the new Sustainable Development Goals era, there is no up-to-date evidence regarding the factors that influence MHS utilisation by adolescent mothers across the entire continuum of care in Kenya, with the last attempt using data almost a decade old [10]. Our study utilises the most recent large-scale dataset, the 2014 KDHS, to assess adolescent MHS utilisation.…”