Barriers to Maternal Healthcare Access in LMICs: How Pushing the Analytical Envelope Could Have Important Implications for Equity

Laura Sochas , London School of Economics

Barriers to maternal healthcare access in LMICs have been extensively studied, with little innovation in measurement or analytical models. Among other gaps, interactions between barriers are rarely considered in quantitative analysis. This has important implications for equity: removing a single access barrier could increase inequalities of access if the effect of doing so is greater for women facing fewer other barriers. This study pushes the analytical envelope by using key informant interviews to inform quantitative variable selection, GIS to link population and health systems datasets, and an innovative multi-level model to test for widespread interactions between barriers to maternal healthcare access in Zambia. Results demonstrate that positive interactions are present between a number of barriers. These results imply that improving equity in maternal healthcare access might require comprehensive policies that target multiple healthcare barriers at once.

See extended abstract

 Presented in Session 10. Fertility, Family Planning, Sexual Behavior & Reproductive Health 2