Women’s Participation in Healthcare Decision-Making in Rural Households in Nigeria: Insights from Akwa Ibom State
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Date
2014
Authors
Eshiet I.
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Department of Sociology, University of Lagos
Abstract
This study investigated women’s participation in health-care decision making in rural households in Nigeria, using Akwa Ibom state as a study location. The study depicts a household as comprising a married couple living together with their children and other dependents. A combination of methods - structured interviews and focus group discussions, were utilised to gather both quantitative and qualitative data. A sample size of 784 married females was drawn (using the multistage random sampling technique) from a female population of 1,875,698 from the three dominant ethnic groups in the state. The study sought specifically to unravel if rural women in Akwa Ibom state participated in the decisions on choice of treatment for sick householders; family size; when to have the next childbirth and the usage or not of contraceptives. Findings reveal women have autonomy in household decisions in health care. However, this agency is not exercised with regard to their reproductive health. Family size and child spacing are still left to nature (God) to decide. Findings reveal that structural inequities have made women’s health care agency socially invisible, hence the women are not conscious of their decision making power. The study therefore, concludes that in order for women’s improved access to household health decision-making to be effective, it should be accompanied by corresponding structural changes in other spheres of the society that reinforce women’s subordination.
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Citation
Eshiet, I. (2014). Women’s Participation in Healthcare Decision-Making in Rural Households in Nigeria: Insights from Akwa Ibom State in Nwabueze N., O. Bammeke & C.C.P. Nnorom (eds). Social Sciences, Humanities and the Human Condition: An Impact Analysis. Lagos: Department of Sociology, University of Lagos, Lagos