Relationship Between Women’s Socio-Economic, Cultural Factors and Access to Maternal Health Care in Kitui County, Kenya
| dc.contributor.author | King’oo, Raymond Keli | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2026-03-26T13:29:21Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2026-03-26T13:29:21Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2025-09 | |
| dc.description | A Thesis Submitted to the School of Law, Arts and Social Sciences in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in Gender and Development Studies of Kenyatta University, September, 2025 Supervisor: 1.Grace Nyamongo 2.Zacharia W. Samita | |
| dc.description.abstract | The aim of this research was to examine the relationship existing between women’s socio-economic, cultural factors and maternal health care access in Kitui County, Kenya. The following research objectives guided the study: first, to establish the relationship between maternal age and maternal health care access in Kitui County, Kenya; second, to examine the relationship between women’s education level and maternal health care access in Kitui County, Kenya; third, to determine how distance covered by women seeking maternal health care influences their access to maternal services in Kitui County, Kenya; fourth, to assess the relationship between the cost incurred when seeking maternal health care services and access to maternal health care in Kitui County, Kenya; finally, the research sought to establish if there exists a relationship between access to maternal health care and socio-cultural factors in Kitui County, Kenya. The Pathway Theory as advanced by Kroeger (1983) guided this study. The research utilized a cross sectional research design. To obtain the sample required for the research, simple random sampling and purposive sampling techniques were used. The study’s respondents comprised of five clinical health officers (CHOs) who were selected from the health facilities in the study area and 150 randomly selected mothers aged between 18 to 45 years who were seeking maternal health care at the time of the research. Interview schedules and questionnaires were used for data collection. Data obtained from the field research was coded and analysed. For qualitative data, content analysis was used whereas inferential and descriptive statistics were used for quantitative data whereby Social Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20 was utilized. The findings revealed that women’s age (χ2=212.18, p-value=0.0001, df=6), level of education (χ2=180.67, p-value=0.0001, df=6), distance to health facilities (χ2=248.53, p-value=0.0001, df=6), socio-cultural factors (χ2=127.42, p-value=0.0001, df=2) and the cost of seeking maternal health care services significantly impacted maternal health care access. The Ministry of Health (MOH) working closely with the Ministry of Education (MoE) should intensify advocacy in schools and communities with the aim of sensitizing the population on dangers of not seeking maternal health care as well as retrogressive cultural practices and beliefs that inhibit women when they seek maternal health care. Moreover, the national government and county governments ought to put in place more health facilities in the sub-counties. This would significantly reduce the distance covered by mothers as they seek maternal health care. Equally, the Kenyan government ought to increase access to the Social Health Authority (SHA) and provide special maternal health care services in order to lower costs that inhibit women from accessing maternal health care. It is the hope of the researcher that the results of this research would serve as a wake-up call to both the county and national government so as to put in place measures that can scale up maternal health care access across the country | |
| dc.description.sponsorship | Kenyatta University | |
| dc.identifier.uri | https://ir-library.ku.ac.ke/handle/123456789/32869 | |
| dc.language.iso | en | |
| dc.publisher | Kenyatta University | |
| dc.title | Relationship Between Women’s Socio-Economic, Cultural Factors and Access to Maternal Health Care in Kitui County, Kenya | |
| dc.type | Thesis |