title: Trends in equity in use of maternal health services in urban and rural Bangladesh.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Maternal healthcare utilization is a major determinant of maternal mortality. Bangladesh is experiencing a rapid pace of urbanization with all future growth in population expected to be in urban areas. Health care infrastructure is different in urban and rural areas thus warranting an examination of equity in use rates of maternal healthcare. This paper addresses whether the urban-rural and rich-poor gaps in use of selected maternal healthcare indicators have narrowed or widened over the last decade. The paper also explores changes in the service provider environment in urban and rural domains.
  
  
  METHODS
  The 2001 and 2010 Bangladesh Maternal Mortality and Health Care Survey data were used to examine trends in use of antenatal care from medically trained providers and in deliveries taking place at health facilities. Separate wealth quintiles were constructed for urban and rural areas. The concentration index was calculated for urban and rural areas to measure equity in distribution of antenatal care (ANC) and facility deliveries across wealth quintiles in urban and rural domains.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The gap in use of ANC provided by medically trained personnel narrowed in urban and rural areas between 2001 and 2010 while that in facility deliveries widened. The difference in use of ANC by the rich and the poor was not as pronounced as that in utilization of facilities for deliveries. Over the last decade, equity in utilization of health facilities for deliveries has improved at a faster rate in urban areas. Private sector has surpassed the public sector and appears to be the dominant provider of maternal healthcare in both domains with the share of NGOs increasing in urban areas.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The faster pace of improvement in equity in maternal healthcare utilization in urban areas is reflective of the changing service environment in urban and rural areas, among other factors.
authors.affiliation: MEASURE Evaluation, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, USA. nahid.kamal@icddrb.org.|Seconded to International Center for Diarrheal Disease Research (icddr,b), Dhaka, Bangladesh. nahid.kamal@icddrb.org.
authors.forename: Nahid
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Kamal
authors.affiliation: Department of Maternal and Child Health, Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, USA. scurtis@email.unc.edu.
authors.forename: Sian
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Curtis
authors.affiliation: Department of Population Sciences, University of Dhaka, Dhaka, Bangladesh. sazzad_dps@du.ac.bd.
authors.forename: Mohammad S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Hasan
authors.affiliation: Office of Population, Health, Nutrition and Education, USAID, Dhaka, Bangladesh. kjamil@usaid.gov.
authors.forename: Kanta
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Jamil
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001459:Bangladesh; D005260:Female; D000069576:Health Equity / Q000706:statistics & numerical data / Q000639:trends*; D006801:Humans; D008427:Maternal Health Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data / Q000639:trends*; D011247:Pregnancy; D011295:Prenatal Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012424:Rural Population / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D014505:Urban Population / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*