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.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
The author(s) retain the copyright and the full publishing right without restriction under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0) which allows readers to share (copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format) and adapt (remix, transform, and build upon the material) for any purpose, even commercially, provided the work is properly attributed. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Author(s) grant the non-exclusive publishing right to the Journal of Karnali Academy of Health Sciences (JKAHS). The publishing rights include the rights to publish, reproduce, distribute, include in indexes or search databases or other media in print or online. The JKAHS may require revisions to the manuscript before acceptance for publication or may choose not to publish it based on the judgement of the editors. Further, JKAHS might retract, withdraw, or publish a correction or other notice after publication, if such publication would be inconsistent with the good publication practices and associated guidelines set forth by the COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics) (https://publicationethics.org/core-practices).
More information about the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License can be found in the webpage of Creative Commons (CC) by following the link provided below: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
