Low levels of women’s empowerment probably constitute a key obstacle to healthcare utilization in Africa, given the importance of gender inequalities in this region. However, evidence on the relationship between women’s empowerment and facility delivery in Cameroon is scarce. This paper examines the link between women’s empowerment and health facility childbirth in Cameroon. For empirical analysis, we used a sample of nationally representative data from the fifth Cameroon Demographic and Health Survey. The study demonstrates that women’s intra-household decision-making power, high women’s economic status and human capital, and opposing attitudes toward wife beating are associated with a higher probability of using health facilities during childbirth. This result remained when we accounted for the endogeneity of empowerment measures in our analysis. Relevant policy implications are discussed in the paper.
Totouom et al. (Fri,) studied this question.