Most women of childbearing age do not utilize the healthcare services even when these services are available in their communities. In this study, an attempt has been made to determine the factors that influence the utilization of the primary health care services among the women of childbearing age in Odeda Local Government Area, Ogun State. The study adopted a quantitative design using descriptive cross section study. A sample size of 367 women of child bearing age was drawn for the study using Slovin’s formula while a multi-stage sampling procedure was employed to select respondents for the study. A structured questionnaire which was validated was used for data collection. The result shows that the respondents has above average level of utilization of primary health care services with overall utilization mean score of 0.781 and percentage of 78.1% for primary health care services, the respondents has high knowledge of PHC services (t-value = 5.808, f_(1,365) = 6.356, p-value = 0.000), majority of the respondents has bad perception of the PHC services (t-value = 4.505, f_(1,365) = 6.326, p-value = 0.000), and educational level (beta value of .211 and t-value of 5.276, p<0.05), marital status (a beta value of .303 and t-value of 3.098, p<0.05), family size (beta value of .290 and t-value of 5.441, p<0.05), and age (beta value of .200 and t-value of 2.432, p<0.05) were found to be potent factor influencing the utilization of primary health care services by women of childbearing age. In conclusion, the study found that the level of utilization of primary health care services among women of childbearing age was good as majority of them received almost all the primary health care services. It was recommended among others that promotion of female education and empowerment are required to improved utilization of primary health care services.

Keywords: Factors, Primary Health Care, Utilization, Women of Child Bearing Age,

Cite this article: