Analysing Barriers to Accessing Maternal Healthcare Systems in Developing Countries: A Case of Sokoto-Northern Nigeria

Abstract

The government and other policy makers continue struggles to achieve maximum access of modern healthcare by the women in developing countries. To assist actualising such goal this study intends to examine the influence of distance to facility, time taken for travel and means of transportation (DTTf) to the health facility. Based on conceptual discussion of Behavioural Model of Health Services’ Use, over 300 targeted women aged 15 to 45 years were selected using systematic sampling in three regions of Sokoto, northern Nigeria and IBM-SPSS version 22 statistical software program was employed for data analysis in both descriptive statistics and Pearson r correlation analysis. The finding reveals that over 77 percent women are located far away distance from health facility, 2.2percent take over 5 hours of traveling before they can reach to the health centre and 35percent of women use hired motor-cycle. Also, there is strong significant relationship between antenatal care services and distance (r = 0.477 and p. < .40) correlation significant at 0.05 (2-tailed) as well as the between delivery care and PNC services. To achieve maximum women access to healthcare, relevant information aimed at proper planning for distribution of health facilities, have been provided for both government and other policy makers in developing countries.

DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2017.v8n1p299