Female education and maternal health care utilization: evidence from Uganda

BACKGROUND: Maternal health care is among the key indicators of population health and economic development. Therefore, the study attempted to explore female education and maternal healthcare utilization in Uganda. The study identified the causal effect of introduction of free education by exploiting the age as an instrument at the second stage model (BMC Health Serv Res. 2015. 10.1186/s12913-015-0943-8; Matern Child Health J. 2009;14:988–98). This instrument provided an exogenous source of variation in the years of schooling and allowed to implement a regression discontinuity design which accounted for heterogeneity in the cohort overtime. METHODS: The study used the Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) to help predict years of schooling that were used in the second stage model in the Two Stage Least Squares (2SLS). The study further used the Regression Discontinuity Design (RDD) model with a running variable of birth years to observe its effect on education. To control for heterogeneity in regions in the second stage model, a fixed effects model was used. RESULTS: Female education indeed had a positive impact on maternal health care utilization. It was further found out that age also influences maternal health care utilization. CONCLUSIONS: Therefore, as an effort to improve professional maternal health care utilisation, there is need to focus on education beyond primary level. Uganda Government should also ensure that there is an improvement in community infrastructure and security across all regions and locations.