Proximity to health care centres and service intake: The case of Community Clinics in Bangladesh

• Published in: IDEAS Working Paper Series from RePEc
• Main Authors: Hasan, Syed, Akter, Tasnima, Jahan, Musharrat, Dewan, Ashraf
• Format: Paper
• Language: English
• Published: St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 01.01.2022
• Subjects: Health facilities; Bangladesh

We investigate how distance from heath centres affects service intake for women and children. Relying on five rounds of recent nationally representative demographic and health survey data from Bangladesh, our logistic regression analyses reveal that proximity to health centres barely affects the intake of health care services for women and children, even in the country’s rural areas. Interestingly, this indicates that the newly established Community Clinics have not significantly contributed to the country’s intake of health care services. The low service intake may result from their poor standard at the local health centres indicating that improving the service quality can help Bangladesh in raising the intake of health care services. Other ways to encourage people, like mandating ANC and PNC visits and vaccination and the introduction of referral services, can also improve the health service intake rate.