Access to primary health care among women: the role of Ghana’s community-based health planning and services policy

BACKGROUND: Ghana in 1999 adopted the Community-based Health Planning and Service (CHPS) policy to enhance access to primary health care (PHC) service. After two decades of implementation, there remains a considerable proportion of the country’s population, especially women who lack access to basic health care services. AIM: The aim of this paper is to understand the contribution of Ghana’s CHPS policy to women’s access to PHC services in the Upper West Region (UWR) of Ghana. METHODS: A logistic regression technique was employed to analyse cross-sectional data collected among women (805) from the UWR. FINDINGS: We found that women who resided in CHPS zones (OR = 1.612; P ≤ 0.01) were more likely to have access to health care compared with their counterparts who resided in non-CHPS zones. Also, rural-urban residence, distance to health facility, household wealth status and marital status predicted access to health care among women in the region. Our findings underscore the need to expand the CHPS policy to cover many areas in the country, especially rural communities and other deprived localities in urban settings.