Institutional Delivery and Associated Factors Among Women in Ghana: Findings from a 2017-2018 Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey

Background: Institutional delivery is essential in reducing maternal morbidity and mortality. We investigated the prevalence of institutional delivery and associated factors among women in Ghana.

Methods: National representative data from the 2017-2018 Ghana Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey was used for the analysis. The study included 3466 women, ages 15-49 y, who had a live birth in the last 2 y. Descriptive statistics were used to assess the prevalence of institutional delivery while multivariate logistic regression was used to assess the relationship between our variables of interest and institutional delivery.

Results: The prevalence of institutional delivery among women in Ghana was 77.89% (95% confidence interval [CI] 75.29 to 80.50). High-income households (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] 2.13 [95% CI 1.36 to 3.35]), attending antenatal care at least four times (aOR 2.37 [95% CI 1.54 to 3.65]) and knowing one's human immunodeficiency virus status (aOR 1.41 [95% CI 1.08 to 1.84]) were associated with higher odds of institutional delivery. Living in rural areas (aOR 0.43 [95% CI 0.27 to 0.67]), multiparity (aOR 0.59 [95% CI 0.41 to 0.85]) and no health insurance (aOR 0.57 [95% CI 0.44 to 0.74]) were associated with lower odds of institutional delivery.

Conclusions: The government of Ghana may need to focus on increasing health insurance utilization and antenatal care attendance in order to increase the coverage of institutional delivery.