Abstract

• Maternal and child health(MCH) status is considered as an important indicator of the level of health and civilization of a community and a country. MCH services for the rural population in the remote area deserves priority by the government, since more than half (52.9%) of the delivery was occured at home and almost half (48.5%) of the delivery was assited by family members or neighbors. The purpose of the study was to analyze the health care behavior related to pregnancy and delivery, which can be contributed maternal health care policy making for the rural people. Specifically, it was intended to analyze the variables which affect the health care behavior in selecting birth places and birth attendants. This study utilized the data which had been already collected for an experimental study on primary health program model in Korean rural communities, funded by the USAID. 184 sample households with women who had delivered a baby during March 1982 to February 1983 were selected. Discriminant Analysis was employed for statistical analysis by utilizing SPSS computer package program. Birth places and birth attendants were considered as dependent variables. Among 12 independent variables in 5 groups considered, 7 independent variables were found statistically significant to affect the selection of birth place. Significant variables by the order of importance arc mother's age, order of baby, number of prenatal care, accessibility of emergency medical care, coverage of medical insurance, mother's membership in community organization and husband's educational level. The degree of correct classification of the grouped cases by employing a discriminant analysis was significantly improved to 78.2% in comparison to Cmax(56%) and Cpro(51%). Policy implications for each significant variable were discussed to improve the maternal and child health, in Korean ruralarea.

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