Pregnant women's decision-making capacity and adherence to iron supplementation in sub-Saharan Africa: a multi-country analysis of 25 countries
Zegeye, Betregiorgis, Adjei, Nicholas Kofi, Olorunsaiye, Comfort Z., Ahinkorah, Bright Opoku, Ameyaw, Edward Kwabena, Seidu, Abdul-Aziz, and Yaya, Sanni (2021) Pregnant women's decision-making capacity and adherence to iron supplementation in sub-Saharan Africa: a multi-country analysis of 25 countries. BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth, 21. 822.
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Abstract
Background: Anaemia and related complications during pregnancy is a global problem but more prevalent in sub-Sahara Africa (SSA). Women’s decision-making power has significantly been linked with maternal health service utilization but there is inadequate evidence about adherence to iron supplementation. This study therefore assessed the association between household decision-making power and iron supplementation adherence among pregnant married women in 25 sub-Saharan African countries.
Methods: We used data from the Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) of 25 sub-Saharan African countries conducted between 2010 and 2019. Women's decision-making power was measured by three parameters; own health care, making large household purchases and visits to her family or relatives. The association between women’s decision-making power and iron supplementation adherence was assessed using logistic regressions, adjusting for confounders. The results were presented as adjusted odds ratio (AOR) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs).
Results: Approximately 65.4% of pregnant married women had made decisions either alone or with husband in all three decisions making parameters (i.e., own health care, making large household purchases, visits to her family or relatives). The rate of adherence to iron medication during pregnancy was 51.7% (95% CI; 48.5–54.9%). Adherence to iron supplementation was found to be higher among pregnant married women who had decision-making power (AOR = 1.46, 95% CI; 1.16–1.83), secondary education (AOR = 1.45, 95% CI; 1.05–2.00) and antenatal care visit (AOR = 2.77, 95% CI; 2.19–3.51). Wealth quintiles and religion were significantly associated with adherence to iron supplementation.
Conclusions: Adherence to iron supplementation is high among pregnant women in SSA. Decision making power, educational status and antenatal care visit were found to be significantly associated with adherence to these supplements. These findings highlight that there is a need to design interventions that enhance women’s decision-making capacities, and empowering them through education to improve the coverage of antenatal iron supplementation.
| Item ID: | 72323 |
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| Item Type: | Article (Research - C1) |
| ISSN: | 1471-2393 |
| Keywords: | Women autonomy, iron adherence, sub-Sahara Africa, DHS, Global health |
| Copyright Information: | © The Author(s) 2021. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data. |
| Date Deposited: | 09 Feb 2022 13:36 |
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