Women with migrant spouses enjoy better healthcare access

Women left behind by migrant spouses seem to have better access to healthcare services, primarily due to lowered financial barriers, a recent study has found.

“While the overall story is one of positive migration effects on healthcare access … results also showed an increase in family-related barriers such as not being permitted to get care by a family member or travel alone to a facility, indicating that some of the benefits of migration for women left behind may be diluted by gendered family structures,” the researchers said.

The role of spousal migration in healthcare utilization patterns of 3,187 women was assessed using the Matlab Health and Socioeconomic Surveys, a unique longitudinal survey of life in Bangladesh. Statistical analyses were controlled for baseline demographic factors and selection effects.

Two main mechanisms by which spousal migration could affect healthcare utilization were explored: remittances and frequent contact with spouses.

Results showed that women with migrant spouses enjoyed better access to healthcare. For instance, they were half as likely to lack the needed healthcare compared to married women who lived together with their spouses (9.1 percent vs 20.6 percent).

Such an effect was driven mainly by the lowered financial barriers among women with migrant spouses (56.9 percent vs 83.2 percent). However, family-related barriers, such as not being allowed to go or to travel alone, were much higher among women with migrant spouses (7.8 percent vs 2.2 percent).

Logistic regression confirmed that having a migrant spouse significantly reduced the likelihood that a woman would not get needed healthcare (coefficient, –0.786; p<0.001).