Influence of maternal characteristics on healthcare seeking behavior for common childhood illnesses in Zambia: an analysis of data from the 2018 Zambia demographic and health survey

Common childhood illnesses remain a major challenge in developing countries. Therefore, acute response is vital to the survival of children below the age of five. Studies of healthcare seeking behavior in Zambia have barely explored the maternal factors associated with healthcare seeking behavior for common childhood illnesses. Thus, this study examined the maternal factors influencing the healthcare seeking behavior for common childhood illnesses in Zambia among children under the age of five. The analyses were based on women who reported to have sought healthcare for the common childhood illnesses, diarrhea, fever and cough from the nationally representative 2018 Zambia Demographic and Health Survey (ZDHS) data. Cross-tabulations and chi-square tests were conducted to establish the crude relationships and finally multinomial logistic regression was employed to determine the major predictors of healthcare seeking behavior using STATA 16.0 with 5% level of significance. The findings revealed that distant factors operate through proximate factors in order to influence healthcare seeking behavior for common childhood illnesses. Multivariate analysis revealed that women in urban areas had higher odds of seeking healthcare at a government hospital [OR=2.932; 95% CI: (1.685-5.101)] and lower odds of seeking healthcare at a private health facility as compared to those in rural areas [OR=0.804; 95% CI: (0.476-1.360)]. Additionally, women with insurance had higher odds of seeking healthcare at both government and private health facilities. The study concluded that the factors likely to influence healthcare seeking behavior include, birth order, sex of household head, region, residence, wealth status, maternal education, occupation, health insurance coverage, ownership of bank account, ownership of mobile telephone and place of delivery. This study recommends development of programs that spread awareness on causes of childhood illnesses and importance of consulting health facilities so as to improve the healthcare seeking behavior for common childhood illnesses and ultimately reduce child mortality