Geographical clustering and geographically weighted regression analysis of home delivery and its determinants in developing regions of Ethiopia: a spatial analysis

Abstract

Background: Nearly three-fourths of pregnant women in Ethiopia give birth at home. However, the spatial pattern and spatial variables linked to home delivery in developing regions of Ethiopia have not yet been discovered. Thus, this study aimed to explore the geographical variation of home delivery and its determinants among women living in emerging (Afar, Somali, Gambella, and Benishangul-Gumuz) regions of Ethiopia, using geographically weighted regression analysis.

Methods: Data were retrieved from the Demographic and Health Survey program's official database ( http://dhsprogram.com ). In this study, a sample of 441 reproductive-age women in Ethiopia's four emerging regions was used. Global and local statistical analyses and mapping were performed using ArcGIS version 10.6. A Bernoulli model was applied to analyze the purely spatial cluster discovery of home delivery. GWR version 4 was used to model spatial regression analysis.

Results: The prevalence of home delivery in the emerging regions of Ethiopia was 76.9% (95% CI: 72.7%, 80.6%) and the spatial distribution of home delivery was clustered with global Moran's I = 0.245. Getis-Ord analysis detected high-home birth practice among women in western parts of the Benishangul Gumz region, the Eastern part of the Gambela region, and the Southern and Central parts of the Afar region. Non-attendance of antenatal care, living in a male-headed household, perception of distance to a health facility as a big problem, residing in a rural area, and having a husband with no education significantly influenced home delivery in geographically weighted regression analysis.

Conclusions: More than three-fourths of mothers in the developing regions of Ethiopia gave birth at home, where high-risk locations have been identified and the spatial distribution has been clustered. Thus, strengthening programs targeted to improve antenatal care service utilization and women's empowerment is important in reducing home birth practice in the study area. Besides, supporting the existing health extension programs on community-based health education through home-to-home visits is also crucial in reaching women residing in rural settings.

Keywords: Determinants; Developing regions; Ethiopia; Geographically weighted regression; Home delivery; Spatial analysis.

Fig. 1

Spatial autocorrelation of home delivery among women in emerging regions of Ethiopia, 2016

Fig. 2

Spatial case distributions of home delivery among women in emerging regions of Ethiopia

Fig. 3

Cluster and outlier analysis of home delivery among women in emerging regions of Ethiopia

Fig. 4

Hot spot and cold spot clusters of home delivery in emerging regions of Ethiopia, 2016

Fig. 5

R square for showing model performance on predicting home delivery in emerging regions of Ethiopia, 2016

Fig. 6

GWR coefficients for male-headed households on predicting home delivery in emerging regions of Ethiopia, 2016

Fig. 7

GWR coefficients for non-attendance of antenatal care visits on predicting home delivery in emerging regions of Ethiopia, 2016

Fig. 8

GWR coefficients for husbands with no education on predicting home delivery in emerging regions of Ethiopia, 2016

Fig. 9

GWR coefficients for rural residence on predicting home delivery in emerging regions of Ethiopia, 2016

Fig. 10

GWR coefficients for the perception of distance to a health facility a big problem in predicting home delivery in emerging regions of Ethiopia, 2016