Abstract
Introduction
Health equity means everyone can access quality healthcare to achieve the best health outcomes. Perceived barriers to accessing healthcare among women of reproductive age (WRA) 15-49 years had been indicated to be high in Cambodia, with 60% in 2021-2022. We aimed to identify associated sociodemographic inequality with perceived barriers to healthcare access among WRA in Cambodia.
Methods
The analysis included 19,496 women aged 15-49 extracted from the Cambodia Demographic and Health Surveys 2021-2022. Multiple logistic regression was used to assess associated factors with perceived barriers to healthcare access among WRA. Adjusted odds ratios (AORs), and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were computed to measure the strength of this association.
Results
Overall, 60.4% of Cambodian WRA reported having at least one barrier to accessing healthcare for themselves. Young women aged 15–19 had higher odds of having perceived barriers of healthcare access with AOR = 1.17 (95% CI: 0.97-1.41), no formal education (AOR = 2.18, 95% CI: 1.69-2.80), primary education (AOR = 1.79, 95% CI: 1.45-2.20), unemployment (AOR = 1.19, 95% CI: 1.05-1.34), living in poorest households (AOR = 2.69) and poorer households (AOR = 1.82), experience visiting health facilities in the past year (AOR = 1.23, 95% CI: 1.12-1.36), living in Coastal regions (AOR = 3.99, 95% CI: 3.17-5.03), Mountain regions (AOR = 2.39, 95% CI: 1.94-2.94), and Tonle Sap regions (AOR = 2.15, 95% CI: 1.79-2.58).
Conclusion
Sociodemographic inequality was commonly a barrier to accessing healthcare services, with significantly high proportion of WRA 15-19 have no formal education, living in poorer households, and living a long geographical distance from health facilities. These findings suggest that further strengthening and redistributing healthcare services to those women for the attainment of universal health coverage and equity of health.