Determining factors of institutional delivery in India: A study from National Family Health Survey-4 (2015-16)

Objective: The present study focuses on the different determining factors of institutional delivery among the women (last birth women who had at least one live birth preceding five years of the survey) aged 15-49 years in India. Method: The entire study based on secondary data which was collected from the National Family Health Survey (NFHS)-4 conducted in 2015-16. Binary (0, 1) logistic regression has been performed for the proper depiction of the results. Results: The results shows that there were a number of determining factors of place of delivery in India and the result of binary logistic regression shows that there was a huge difference in the likelihood of deliver at institution among the ever-married women i.e. middle aged (25-34 years) women were more likely [AOR:1.127, 95% CI:1.034-1.229, p < 0.01] to deliver at institution than the younger aged women; women having higher birth order (4 or 4 +) were less likely to deliver at institution than the low birth order; higher educated women were more likely [AOR:2.737, 95% CI:2.223-3.371, p < 0.01] to deliver at institution than the lower educated women; Hindu women were more likely to deliver at institution than the other religious women; richest women were more likely to deliver at institution than the poor women; the women who received antenatal care at the time of pregnancy period were more (2.8 times) likely [AOR:2.833, 95% CI:2.632-3.049, p < 0.01] to deliver at institution than the women who don't received any antenatal care and the women who enjoy the higher autonomy were more likely [AOR:1.199, 95% CI:1.071-1.342, p < 0.01] to deliver at institution than the women who have low or partial autonomy in India. Conclusion: Major findings of the present study have policy implications for reducing the resistances to delivering in the institution among the women of India which will reduce the maternal and infant mortality in India.