ArticleBMC pregnancy and childbirth2021
Why don't illiterate women in rural, Northern Tanzania, access maternal healthcare?
Article in BMC pregnancy and childbirth, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
13 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Barriers and facilitators to maternal healthcare in East Africa: a systematic review and qualitative synthesis of perspectives from women, their families, healthcare providers, and key stakeholders.BMC pregnancy and childbirth · 2025Pooled it
- Predictors of male partners' behavioral intentions and cognitive readiness toward maternal health service utilization in rural Tanzania: an application of the theory of planned behavior.BMC pregnancy and childbirth · 2026Article
- Inequalities in the completion of maternal continuum of care in Ethiopia using the 2019 mini-Ethiopian demographic and health survey.Scientific reports · 2026Article
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- Patient's willingness to pay for improved community health insurance in Tanzania.Health policy OPEN · 2024Article
- Formative research to inform the future design of a multicomponent fatherhood intervention to improve early child development in Mwanza, Tanzania.Social science & medicine (1982) · 2023Article
- Impacts of language barriers on healthcare access and quality among Afaan Oromoo-speaking patients in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.BMC health services research · 2023Article
- Evaluation of a comprehensive maternal newborn health intervention in rural Tanzania: single-arm pre-post coverage survey results.Global health action · 2022Article
- Women's preferences for antenatal care in Tanzania: a discrete choice experiment.BMC pregnancy and childbirth · 2022Article
- Prevalence and its predictors of intimate partner violence against pregnant women amid COVID-19 pandemic in Southwest Ethiopia, 2021: A cross-sectional study.SAGE open medicine · 2022Article
- COVID-19 and Health Sector Development Plans in Africa: The Impact on Maternal and Child Health Outcomes in Uganda.Risk management and healthcare policy · 2021Article
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10 authors.
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Abstract
backgroundIn 2017, roughly 540 women in Sub-Saharan Africa died every day from preventable causes related to pregnancy and childbirth. To stem this public-health crisis, the WHO recommends a standard continuity of maternal healthcare, yet most women do not receive this care. Surveys suggest that illiteracy limits the uptake of the recommended care, yet little is understood about why this is so. This gap in understanding why healthcare is not sought by illiterate women compromises the ability of public health experts and healthcare providers to provide culturally relevant policy and practice. This study consequently explores the lived experiences related to care-seeking by illiterate women of reproductive age in rural Tanzania to determine why they may not access maternal healthcare services.
methodsAn exploratory, qualitative study was conducted in four communities encompassing eight focus group discussions with 81 illiterate women, 13 in-depth interviews with illiterate women and seven key-informant interviews with members of these communities who have first-hand experience with the decisions made by women concerning maternal care. Interviews were conducted in the informant's native language. The interviews were coded, then triangulated.
resultsTwo themes emerged from the analysis: 1) a communication gap arising from a) the women's inability to read public-health documents provided by health facilities, and b) healthcare providers speaking a language, Swahili, that these women do not understand, and 2) a dependency by these women on family and neighbors to negotiate these barriers. Notably, these women understood of the potential benefits of maternal healthcare.
conclusionsThese women knew they should receive maternal healthcare but could neither read the public-health messaging provided by the clinics nor understand the language of the healthcare providers. More health needs of this group could be met by developing a protocol for healthcare providers to determine who is illiterate, providing translation services for those unable to speak Swahili, and graphic public health messaging that does not require literacy. A failure to address the needs of this at-risk group will likely mean that they will continue to experience barriers to obtaining maternal care with detrimental health outcomes for both mothers and newborns.
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