OBJECTIVE Poor utilization of health facilities during delivery by pregnant mothers is still a major cause of maternal and childhood morbidity and mortality in Nigeria. The aim of this study was to determine the level of utilization of health care services by pregnant women during delivery in Gokana Local Government Area of River State, Nigeria. MATERIALS AND METHODS This was a cross-sectiona...

BACKGROUND Existing studies of delivery care in Nigeria have identified socioeconomic and cultural factors as the primary determinants of health facility delivery. However, no study has investigated the association between supply-side factors and health facility delivery. Our study analyzed the role of supply-side factors, particularly health facility readiness and management practices for prov...

The health-care facility environment is rarely implicated in disease transmission, except among patients who are immunocompromised. Nonetheless, inadvertent exposures to environmental pathogens (e.g., Aspergillus spp. and Legionella spp.) or airborne pathogens (e.g., Mycobacterium tuberculosis and varicella-zoster virus) can result in adverse patient outcomes and cause illness among health-care...

Access to basic health care services is one of the major issues in developing nations. The location of health care facilities is an important aspect in health care delivery. It is therefore necessary for health care services to be located optimally to serve the demands well. This study develops an integrated methodology in the field of healthcare location which minimizes the weighted average Eu...

The objective of the study was to determine the spatial variation in modern contraceptive use and unmet need for family planning across the counties of Kenya and to examine whether the spatial patterns were associated with inequalities in physical access to health facilities. Data were obtained from the 2008-2009 Kenya Demographic and Health Survey and linked to the location of health facilitie...

BACKGROUND Health facility births contribute to the prevention of maternal deaths. Although theoretical and empirical evidence suggest that social network characteristics influence facility delivery, examination of this relationship in sub-Saharan Africa is limited. We determined whether network structural and functional characteristics were associated with, or had an interactive effect on heal...