Variable Name

Variable Description & Justification

Variable Measurement

mtnage

Age of the mother under study. Young mothers more likely to utilize maternal healthcare services compared to old mothers (Digambar, 2017 and Oyedele, 2017 )

No. of years (15 to 49)

hinco

The household income with the wealthy households more likely to utilise maternal healthcare services compared to poor households.

Wealth index (1 to 5)⁴

plres

The place where the woman lives either rural or urban residence with urban dwellers having more access than rural (Lidoroh (2013) , Ayele (2014) and Oyedele (2017) .

Dummy being 1 for urban and 0 for rural.

insur

Health insurance cover which increases the probability of utilising formal healthcare facilities (Larsen (2004) and Kevany et al. (2012) .

Dummy with 1 if a woman has a health insurance policy and 0 otherwise.

mtedu

The level of education of the woman where the more educated the woman is, the higher the probability of utilising maternal healthcare services mediated through higher income (Joe & Mishra, 2009) .

Categorical variable⁵

chlnm

The number of living children that a woman has at last pregnancy as a proxy for woman prior experience to utilisation of healthcare facilities. Utilisation of maternal healthcare services decreases with an increase in the number of children.

No. of children

rresid

The region of residence (province) being an indicator of extent of inequality in healthcare infrastructure availability (Rutaremwa, 2015) .

Regional dummies (1 - 6 for the 6 Provinces)

rel

The religion of the woman. Being apostolic reduces the probability of utilising maternal healthcare services (Chepkorir et al. 2014).

Dummy being 1 for apostolic sect and 0 otherwise.

hsize

Household size being the number of members in the household. Individuals from large households less likely to seek healthcare services from healthcare facilities mediated through income (Muchabaiwa et al., 2013).

Number of members in the household.

empst

Employment status of the woman with employment increasing chances of using healthcare facilities to the extent the woman control her income (Addai, 2000).

Dummy variable 1 for employed women and 0 otherwise.

bthord

Birth order capturing whether the child was a first born, second born or any position at the time of survey being another proxy for woman prior experience to utilisation of healthcare facilities.

1 for 1^st born, 2 for 2^nd born up n for n^th born.

µ

a stochastic error term

β_i s

constants