Utilization of Antenatal Care Services and Factors Affecting Antenatal Care Visits in Pokhara Sub-Metropolitan City
Keywords:
Antenatal care visit (ANC), Service Utilization, Factor affecting ANC visit, Pokhara sub-metropolitan city, NepalAbstract
Background: In context of Nepal, although the pregnant women from city areas contribute to maternal mortality, evidences of study of utilization of antenatal care services and factors affecting antenatal care visits (ANC) are focused in rural areas where health institutions are not easily available. The objective of this study was to identify ANC services utilization by eligible women in Pokhara sub-metropolitan city.
Methods: This was a cross-sectional study conducted applying face to face interviews with 240 eligible women bearing at least one youngest child below the age of two years. Structured and semi-structured questionnaire were used after translating into Nepali language and pretesting it in the field. Data entered in Microsoft excel were transferred in SPSS (Statistical package for social sciences) version 21 and analysis was carried out. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were computed. The significance was set at 0.05 level.
Results: Approximately 97.0% of women had visited ANC during their recent pregnancy and about 56.0% of women had ≥4 ANC visits. Majority (80.3%) of the women used to seek ANC checkup during their first trimester and nearly half (49.0%) of the respondents belonged to younger age of 15-19 years. Women’ (99.0%) and her husbands’ (86.0%) educational level significantly impacted ANC visits. Women having fewer numbers of children (98.0%) and nuclear family (99.0%) had significantly higher ANC visits. Husbands’and mother-in-laws’encouragement to go for ANC visits was significantly higher.All of the above mentioned parameters were statistically significant at p< 0.05 level.
Conclusions: There was variation in ANC service taking as per the encouragement from husband and mother-in-law of the woman. Hence, awareness programs targeting husband and mother-in-law regarding importance ofANC services is suggested. Conduction of detailed study in futureto explore quality of services is recommended.
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