ArticleFrontiers in reproductive health2026
Trends and inequalities in health facility deliveries among women of reproductive age in Ghana, 1993-2022.
Article in Frontiers in reproductive health, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Background: Health facility delivery is a critical intervention to reduce maternal and neonatal mortality. Ghana has achieved substantial gains in facility deliveries over the past three decades, yet disparities persist across socioeconomic and demographic dimensions. This study describes trends and inequalities in health facility deliveries among women of reproductive age in Ghana from 1993 to 2022 across wealth, education, place of residence, age, and region. Methods: Data were extracted from the WHO Health Equity Assessment Toolkit (HEAT), which provides weighted, age-standardised estimates from Ghana Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) and Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS) for the years 1993, 1998, 2003, 2006, 2008, 2011, 2014, 2017, and 2022. The outcome was the percentage of live births occurring in a health facility (WHO HEAT indicator code: MNCH7). Inequality was measured using the absolute difference (D), ratio (R), population attributable fraction (PAF), and population attributable risk (PAR) for each dimension, with 95% confidence intervals. Results: National health facility delivery prevalence increased from 42.3% (95% CI: 39.5-45.1) in 1993 to 85.4% (95% CI: 84.1-86.7) in 2022. In 2022, marked disparities remained: richest vs. poorest quintile (97.1% vs. 71.1%; D = 25.7 percentage points); higher education vs. no education (98.0% vs. 72.3%; D = 25.7 percentage points); urban vs. rural (93.7% vs. 77.9%; D = 15.8 percentage points); and Upper East vs. Northern region (97.7% vs. 69.0%; D = 28.7 percentage points). Absolute economic inequality (D) declined from 60.6 percentage points in 1993 to 25.7 in 2022; educational inequality fell from 53.6 to 17.8; and rural-urban inequality declined from 35.8 to 9.7. Age-related inequality was negligible throughout. Conclusion: While Ghana has achieved substantial gains in health facility deliveries, marked inequalities by wealth, education, place of residence, and region persist. These patterns coincide temporally with policy reforms including the Free Maternal Health Policy and the National Health Insurance Scheme; however, this descriptive analysis cannot establish causality. Targeted interventions for women in poorer, less educated, and rural settings are needed to achieve equitable maternal healthcare.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.