Social Capital as a Determinant of Pregnant Mother's Place of Delivery: Experience from Kongwa District in Central Tanzania

Association of social capital with mental health and quality of life among low- and high-risk pregnant women

INTRODUCTION

Social capital means having resources and support in relationships and social ties. It can affect the individual's quality of life and mental health. The present study investigated the association between social capital with psychological status and quality of life among low-risk and high-risk pregnant women.

METHODS

The present cross-sectional study was conducted with the participation of 394 pregnant women receiving prenatal care in urban comprehensive health centers in Qazvin, Iran. Two-stage sampling was used to select comprehensive health centers by random cluster sampling and then pregnant women randomly. Social capital, quality of life (QoL), psychological status, and demographic and obstetric characteristics were assessed. Uni-variable and multivariable linear regression models were used to analyze the data.

RESULTS

Among the participants, 267 had low-risk pregnancies (67.77%) and the remainder were high-risk. The mean age of participants was 27.94 years (SD=5.86), the mean gestational age was 23.63 weeks (SD=7.71). The mean overall quality of life score among low-risk pregnant women was 32.00 (SD=5.27) and among high-risk pregnant women was 29.70 (SD=3.65). High-risk pregnant women experienced significantly higher anxiety and depression and fear of COVID-19. Social capital had a significant and weak relationship with anxiety among low-risk pregnant women (r = 0.22, p < 0.001). Also, a weak and significant relationship between social capital and anxiety (r = 0.24, p = 0.007), depression (r = 0.24, p = 0.007) and fear of COVID-19 (r = 0.27, p = 0.002) was found among high-risk pregnant women.

CONCLUSION

Women with high-risk pregnancies experienced lower quality of life, higher anxiety and depression, and greater fear of COVID-19. There was also a weak relationship between social capital and the aforementioned variables among high-risk pregnant women. Designing and implementing interventions to increase quality of life and reduce anxiety and stress among high-risk pregnant women appears to be warranted.

Role of trust in sustaining provision and uptake of maternal and child healthcare: Evidence from a national programme in Nigeria

Despite increasing attention to implementation research in global health, evidence from low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) using realist evaluations, in understanding how complex health programmes work remains limited. This paper contributes to bridging this knowledge gap by reporting how, why and in what circumstances, the implementation and subsequent termination of a maternal and child health programme affected the trust of service users and healthcare providers in Nigeria. Key documents were reviewed, and initial programme theories of how context triggers mechanisms to produce intended and unintended outcomes were developed. These were tested, consolidated and refined through iterative cycles of data collection and analysis. Testing and validation of the trust theory utilized eight in-depth interviews with health workers, four focus group discussions with service users and a household survey of 713 pregnant women and analysed retroductively. The conceptual framework adopted Hurley's perspective on 'decision to trust' and Straten et al.'s framework on public trust and social capital theory. Incentives offered by the programme triggered confidence and satisfaction among service users, contributing to their trust in healthcare providers, increased service uptake, motivated healthcare providers to have a positive attitude to work, and facilitated their trust in the health system. Termination of the programme led to most service users' dissatisfaction, and distrust reflected in the reduction in utilization of MCH services, increased staff workloads leading to their decreased performance although residual trust remained. Understanding the role of trust in a programme's short and long-term outcomes can help policymakers and other key actors in the planning and implementation of sustainable and effective health programmes. We call for more theory-driven approaches such as realist evaluation to advance understanding of the implementation of health programmes in LMICs.

Social capital and maternal and child health services uptake in low- and middle-income countries: mixed methods systematic review

BACKGROUND

Social capital has become an important concept in the field of public health, and is associated with improved health services uptake. This study aimed to systematically review the available literature on the role of social capital on the utilization of maternal and child health services in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).

METHODS

Mixed-methods research review and synthesis using three databases PubMed, Scopus, and Science Direct for peer-reviewed literature and Google Scholar and Google search engines for gray literature were performed. Both quantitative and qualitative studies conducted in LMICs, published in English and in grey literature were considered. Prior to inclusion in the review methodological quality was assessed using a standardized critical appraisal instrument.

RESULTS

A total of 1,545 studies were identified, of which 13 records were included after exclusions of studies due to duplicates, reading titles, abstracts, and full-text reviews. Of these eligible studies, six studies were included for quantitative synthesis, and seven were included for qualitative synthesis. Of the six quantitative studies, five of them addressed the association between social capital and health facility delivery. Women who lived in communities with higher membership in groups that helps to form intergroup bridging ties had higher odds of using antenatal care services. Synthesized qualitative findings revealed that women received some form of emotional, informational, and instrumental support from their network members. Receiving health information from trusted people and socio-cultural factors influenced the use of maternal and child health services.

CONCLUSIONS

Social capital has a great contribution to improve maternal and child health services. Countries aiming at improving maternal and child health services can be benefited from adapting existing context-specific social networks in the community. This review identified limited available evidence examining the role of social capital on maternal and child health services uptake and future studies may be required for an in-depth understanding of how social capital could improve maternal and child health services.

SYSTEMATIC REVIEW REGISTRATION

PROSPERO CRD42021226923.

The association between social capital and quality of life among a sample of Iranian pregnant women

Background

Quality of life (QoL) is a multidimensional concept that is affected by various factors. According to the literature, social capital is one of the key determinants of QoL that improves the living conditions of the entire community. This study aimed to investigate the association between social capital and QoL in pregnant women.

Methods

This cross-sectional study included 240 pregnant women with a mean age of 27.98 years who were referred to healthcare centers in Qazvin, Iran. A two-stage random sampling method was used to select the health centers and participants. Social capital, QoL, demographic and obstetric characteristics were assessed.

Results

The mean scores of social capital, physical and mental dimensions of quality of life were 67.43, 70.2 and 71.88 respectively. All dimensions of social capital except for family and friends’ connection and tolerance of diversity had positive significant correlations with the physical and mental health dimensions of quality of life (r = 0.17 to 0.28 p < 0.05). A univariate regression model revealed that social capital had a significant association with both the physical health (B = 0.40, 95% CI: 0.19–0.61, p < 0.001) and mental health (B = 0 .44, 95% CI: 0.18–0.58, p < 0.001) dimensions of pregnant women’s quality of life. In the adjusted model, each unit increase of social capital increased pregnant women’s QoL in both the physical health and mental health dimensions.

Conclusion

Social capital has a significant association with women’s QoL during pregnancy. Therefore, QoL during pregnancy could be improved by considering physical, psychological and social components of their healthcare.

Access barriers to obstetric care at health facilities in sub-Saharan Africa-a systematic review

BACKGROUND

Since 2000, the United Nations' Millennium Development Goals, which included a goal to improve maternal health by the end of 2015, has facilitated significant reductions in maternal morbidity and mortality worldwide. However, despite more focused efforts made especially by low- and middle-income countries, targets were largely unmet in sub-Saharan Africa, where women are plagued by many challenges in seeking obstetric care. The aim of this review was to synthesise literature on barriers to obstetric care at health institutions in sub-Saharan Africa.

METHODS

This review was guided by the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) checklist. PubMed, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL), and Scopus databases were electronically searched to identify studies on barriers to health facility-based obstetric care in sub-Saharan Africa, in English, and dated between 2000 and 2015. Combinations of search terms 'obstetric care', 'access', 'barriers', 'developing countries' and 'sub-Saharan Africa' were used to locate articles. Quantitative, qualitative and mixed-methods studies were considered. A narrative synthesis approach was employed to synthesise the evidence and explore relationships between included studies.

RESULTS

One hundred and sixty articles met the inclusion criteria. Currently, obstetric care access is hindered by several demand- and supply-side barriers. The principal demand-side barriers identified were limited household resources/income, non-availability of means of transportation, indirect transport costs, a lack of information on health care services/providers, issues related to stigma and women's self-esteem/assertiveness, a lack of birth preparation, cultural beliefs/practices and ignorance about required obstetric health services. On the supply-side, the most significant barriers were cost of services, physical distance between health facilities and service users' residence, long waiting times at health facilities, poor staff knowledge and skills, poor referral practices and poor staff interpersonal relationships.

CONCLUSION

Despite similarities in obstetric care barriers across sub-Saharan Africa, country-specific strategies are required to tackle the challenges mentioned. Governments need to develop strategies to improve healthcare systems and overall socioeconomic status of women, in order to tackle supply- and demand-side access barriers to obstetric care. It is also important that strategies adopted are supported by research evidence appropriate for local conditions. Finally, more research is needed, particularly, with regard to supply-side interventions that may improve the obstetric care experience of pregnant women.

SYSTEMATIC REVIEW REGISTRATION

PROSPERO 2014 CRD42014015549.