Maternal health care services utilization amidstCOVID-19 pandemic in West Shoa zone, central Ethiopia

  1. Kababa Temesgen
  2. Negash Wakgari
  3. Bikila Tefera Debelo
  4. Belay Tafa
  5. Getu Alemu
  6. Fikadu Wondimu
  7. Tolera Gudisa
  8. Tolosa Gishile
  9. Gurmesa Daba
  10. Gizachew Abdissa Bulto
  11. Bikila Soboka

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Abstract

The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) is an infectious disease caused by a newly discovered coronavirus. Despite strong efforts that have been taking place to control the pandemic globally, the virus is on the rise in many countries. Hence, this study assessed the maternal health care services utilization amidst the COVID-19 pandemic in West Shoa zone, Central Ethiopia. A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted among 844 pregnant women or those who gave birth in the last 6 months before the study. A multi-stage sampling technique was used to select the study participants. The data were collected through face-to-face interviews using a semi-structured questionnaire. Logistic regressions were performed to identify the presence of significant associations, and an adjusted odds ratio with 95%CI was employed for the strength and directions of association between the independent and outcome variables. A P-value of <0.05 was used to declare statistical significance. The prevalence of maternal health service utilization during the COVID-19 pandemic was 64.8%. The odds of maternal health service utilization was higher among mothers who had primary (AOR = 2.16, 95%CI: 1.29–3.60), secondary (AOR = 1.97, 95%CI: 1.13–3.44), and college and above education (AOR = 2.89, 95%CI: 1.34–6.22) than those who could not read and write. Besides, mothers who did travel 30–60 minutes (AOR = 0.37, 95%CI: 0.23–0.59) and 60-90minutes (AOR = 0.10, 95%CI: 0.05–0.19) to reach the health facility had a lower odds of maternal health service utilization than those who did travel <30 minutes. Moreover, mothers who earn 1000–2000 (AOR = 3.10, 95%CI: 1.73–5.55) and > 2000 birrs (AOR = 2.66 95%CI: 1.52–4.64) had higher odds of maternal health service utilization than those who earn <500 birrs. Similarly, the odds of utilizing maternal health service were higher among mothers who did not fear COVID-19 infection (AOR = 2.79, 95%CI: 1.85–4.20), who had not had to request permission from husband to visit the health facility (AOR = 7.24, 95%CI: 2.65–19.75), who had practicedCOVID-19 prevention measure (AOR = 5.82, 95%CI: 3.87–8.75), and used face mask (AOR = 2.06, 95% CI: 1.28–3.31) than their counterpart. Empowering mothers and creating awareness on COVID-19 preventionis recommended to improve maternal health service utilization during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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  1. Version published to 10.1371/journal.pone.0249214
  2. ScreenIT

    SciScore for 10.1101/2020.10.09.20210054: (What is this?)

    Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.

    Table 1: Rigor

    Institutional Review Board StatementIRB: Ethics statement: The ethical clearance was obtained from an ethical review committee of the college of medicine and health sciences, Ambo University.
    Consent: Both written and verbal consent was obtained from each study subject before the data collection process proceeded.
    RandomizationSix districts were selected at the first stage by simple random sampling from a total of 23 districts of West Shoa Zone.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot detected.
    Sex as a biological variableStudy design, setting, and population: A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted among women who were pregnant and those gave birth in the last 6 months of the study period in West Shoa Zone, central Ethiopia from July 1 to July 30, 2020.

    Table 2: Resources

    Software and Algorithms
    SentencesResources
    Data processing and analysis: Collected data were cleaned and entered using Epi data version 4.6 and analyzed using SPSS version 23.
    SPSS
    suggested: (SPSS, RRID:SCR_002865)

    Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).

    Results from LimitationRecognizer: An explicit section about the limitations of the techniques employed in this study was not found. We encourage authors to address study limitations.

    Results from TrialIdentifier: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.

    Results from Barzooka: We did not find any issues relating to the usage of bar graphs.

    Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.

    Results from rtransparent:
    • Thank you for including a conflict of interest statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • Thank you for including a funding statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • No protocol registration statement was detected.

    About SciScore

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  3. Version published to 10.1101/2020.10.09.20210054v1 on medRxiv