Article Sidebar
Article Details
While African Health Sciences has been freely accessible online there have been questions on whether it is Open Access or not. We wish to clearly state that indeed African Health Sciences is Open Access. There are key issues regarding Open Access needing clarification for avoidance of doubt:
- 1. Henceforth, papers in African Health Sciences will be published under the CC BY (Creative Commons Attribution License) 4.0 International. See details on https://creativecomons.org/)
- 2. The copyright owners or the authors grant the 3rd party (perpetually and in advance) the right to disseminate, reproduce, or use the research papers in part or in full, format/medium as long as:
- No substantive errors are introduced in the process
- Attribution of authorship and correct citation details are given
- The referencing details are not changed.
Should the papers be reproduced in part, this must be clearly stated.
- 3. The papers will be freely and universally accessible online in an easily readable format such as XML in at least one widely recognized open access repository such as PUBMED CENTRAL.
B. ABRIDGED LICENCE AGREEMENT BETWEEN AUTHORS AND African Health Sciences
I submitted my manuscript to African Health Sciences and would like to affirm that:
1.0 I am authorized by my co-authors to enter into these arrangements.
2.0 I guarantee, on behalf of self and co-authors:
- That the paper is original, and has not been published in any other peer-reviewed journal; nor is it under consideration by other journal (s). It does not infringe existing copyright or any other person’s rights
- That we are/I am the sole author(s) of the paper and with authority to enter into this agreement. My granting rights to African Health Sciences is not in breach of any other obligation
- That the paper contains nothing unlawful, or libelous. Nor anything that would constitute a breach of contract, confidence or commitment given to secrecy, if published
- That I/we have taken care to ensure the integrity of the article.
3.0 I and all co-authors, agree that the paper, if accepted for publication, shall be licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0. (see https://creativecommons.org/)
Main Article Content
Towards an understanding of regional disparities in social inequities in maternal health in Malawi
Abstract
Background: Improving maternal health remains a major challenge facing Malawi because at 984 deaths per 100,000 live births, the maternal mortality ratio is among the highest in the world. Although the health status of women in childbearing age groups is low in all the three regions of Malawi, there are marked regional differences in several health indicators. Objective: To analyze the degree of socio-economic inequities in maternal health in Malawi both at regional and national levels. Methods: Using data from a sample of 4,276 women from the Malawi Second Integrated Household Survey of 2004 who reported giving birth up to two years preceding the survey, deliveries attended by skilled health personnel and access to prenatal care services were used to analyze socio-economic inequities in maternal health. Household income, from which household socio-economic status was derived, was proxed by real annual household expenditure. Concentration indices were then calculated for the two indicators for the whole sample, as well as for each of the three regions of Malawi. The proportion of household income that is spent on health was also considered to ascertain whether the poor spend a larger proportion of their income on health than the non-poor. Results: There is no evidence that the poor spend a higher proportion of their income on health than the non-poor. We found very high rates of utilization of antenatal care services with no income-related inequality in its utilization both at regional and national levels. There are socioeconomic inequalities in the deliveries by skilled health personnel. The pro-rich inequalities in the medically attended deliveries are highest in the central region followed by the north and lowest in the southern region, with traditional birth attendants still playing an important role in handling deliveries. Conclusions: The free government medical services appear to be effective in ensuring that the poor do not spend a higher proportion of their income on health than the non-poor. However, there is a wide mismatch between utilization of antenatal care services and skilled attendance at childbirth.
Keywords: socio-economic inequities, maternal health, Malawi
