Impact of Cultural Competence Intervention on Satisfaction with Maternity Services among Women of Reproductive Age in Rural Kenya

Introduction: Quality of care is acknowledged as a critical facet of the unfinished maternal and newborn health agenda. Yet modalities of reorienting maternity services to respectful services are rare. This study investigated the effect of training health workers in cultural competence towards satisfaction with maternity service.

Materials and Methods: This was a Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial undertaken in public hospitals. The intervention was provision of culturally sensitive maternity services by health workers after cultural competence training. Three hundred and seventy nine women were interviewed per group using exit and mystery client surveys. The effect was measured using standard mean difference (Cohen’s d) and t-test.

Results: There was significant effect on satisfaction with provided information on delivery methods (F (1, 756) = 11.493, p < 0.001, ηp2 = .049). The mean of intervention group increased from 3.55 ±1.056 to 3.94, ±0.894 while the control changed from 3.57±1.187 to 3.62 ± 1.149. The mean changes tweaked the group variance from insignificant t (725) =0.290, p = 0.771 to significant t (713) =-4.336 p <0.001.

Conclusion: Cultural competence training is effective in creating room for desired maternal needs and improving perceived satisfaction with maternity services. Consequently, there is a need to integrate cultural knowledge and skills into existing maternal policies and training.