TITLE:
Non-Medical Determinants of Caesarean Deliveries in Ghana: A Logistic Regression Approach
AUTHORS:
Ernest Yeboah Boateng, Senyefia Bosson-Amedenu, Ezekiel Nii Noye Nortey, Daniel A. Abaye
KEYWORDS:
Caesarean Deliveries, Non-Medical Determinants, Logistic Regression, Ghana
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Applied Sciences,
Vol.9 No.6,
June
27,
2019
ABSTRACT: This study examined the non-medical factors that influence expectant
mothers to opt for caesarean deliveries in Ghana. Data on 395
expectant mothers across the ten regions of Ghana who were located in urban,
semi-rural and rural areas, and spanned a period of five years (from 2012 to
2016) were obtained from the Ghana Health Service. In fitting the logistic regression model, data on 355 expectant mothers (i.e. 89.9% of the data) was assigned to the analysis sample while
40 (i.e. 10.1%) was assigned to the hold-out
sample. The hold-out sample together with other statistical measures of overall
model fit, pseudo R2 measures
and classification accuracy were used to validate the results obtained from the
analysis sample. Significance was tested at p = 0.05. Determinants including, educational level of expectant mother, parity of expectant mother, baby’s birth weight,
previous caesarean delivery, location of expectant mother, age of expectant mother and, period within the year of childbirth had a significant effect on caesarean delivery.
The study recommended that health practitioners should
be able to foretell expectant mothers who are likely to undergo caesarean
delivery in order for them to prepare financially and psychologically to avoid further complications. Due to
the significant positive attitude of women towards caesarean delivery rather
than normal delivery, it is necessary to inform them about the advantages of
normal delivery and the health hazards associated with caesarean delivery to
the mother and child.