Factors Influencing Utilization Of Community-Based Health Planning And Services (Chps) In The Offinso North District, Ashanti Region

ABSTRACT Introduction: Community-Based Health Planning and Services (CHPS) is a national strategy for implementing community-based health care service by reorienting and relocating primary health care from sub district health centers to convenient community locations (Frimpong, 2018). As a step to make health services accessible to Ghanaians, the Government of Ghana in collaboration with the Ghana Health Service (GHS) and Ministry of Health adopted the CHPS concept in 1999 but it became operationalized in 2005 after the GHS made it a national policy for health care delivery (GHS, 2005). Objectives: The main objective of this study was to assess factors influencing the utilization of health services at the CHPS compounds in the Offinso North District. Methods: This study was conducted in the Offinso North District. The study was a cross-sectional study design involving both quantitative and qualitative approaches. In the quantitative approach, a semi-structured questionnaire and observational checklist were used to collect information on factors influencing utilization of health services at the CHPS compound. Multivariate analysis using unadjusted logistic regression was used to look for association between variables. The qualitative component comprised Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) and In-depth interviews (IDIs) for community members and community health nurses respectively to obtain additional information on factors influencing health services at the CHPS compound. Results: This study showed low level of knowledge on CHPS services, as 25 (8.4%) of the respondents indicated they had heard about CHPS. It revealed that (83.6%) of the participants were satisfied with the attitude of their attendants. It was also revealed that, a number of essential logistics were not available at CHPS compounds at the time of the assessment. v Again, the study revealed that women were almost three times more likely to use CHPS services compared to their male counterparts (AOR=2.39; 95% CI: 1.30-4.36; p=0.005) and participants who stayed five kilometers away from the CHPS compound were 88% less likely to use CHPS services compared to those closer to the CHPS compound (AOR=0.12; 95% CI: 0.03-0.57; p=0.008). Conclusion: Factors that were discovered to influence the utilization of health services at CHPS compounds included gender of respondents, number of children they had, and the distance to the CHPS compounds.