Impact of education on the utilization of maternal health care services: An investigation from National Family Health Survey (2015-16) in India

Aim: The present study attempts to show the influence of women's (15-49 years) education on the utilization of Maternal Health Care (MHC) services in India and also find out the other determinants for the utilization of MHC services. Data & Method: The entire study depends on secondary data collected from the National Family Health Survey (NFHS)-4 in the year of 2015-16 in India which was conducted on 190,898 women (15-49 years). In the present study, the last birth women (190,898) have been considered. For the proper depiction of the resulting binary logistic regression has been conducted. Variables: To show the level of utilization of MHC services in India, the highest educational level of the respondents have been considered as the explanatory variable and six outcome variables have been selected. Result The unadjusted odds ratio (UOR) shows that women's education positively and very significantly associated with the utilization of MHC services which indicates that the higher educated women are more likely to received at least 4 ANC visit [UOR 6.450, 95% CI (6.223-6.685) & p-value < 0.01], taking 1st antenatal visit within first trimester [UOR 2.563, 95% CI (2.458-2.672) & p-value < 0.01], ANC visit by skilled health professionals [UOR 9.139, 95% CI (8.624-9.684) & p-value < 0.01], taking 2 or more than 2 TT doses [UOR 2.348, 95% CI (2.239-2.463) & p-value < 0.01], delivered in health facility [UOR 14.64, 95% CI (13.63-15.73) & p-value < 0.01] and received PNC within 42 days of delivery [UOR 1.361, 95% CI (1.024-1.808) & p-value < 0.01] than the illiterate women. The adjusted odds ratio (AOR) was low compared to UOR which indicate that there were important effect of other variables (which have been controlled in the adjusted odds ratio) except education which also impact on the utilization of maternal health care services i.e. maternal age, age at marriage, birth order, caste, religion, wealth index, place of residence, exposure to mass media, and region.