Antenatal care service utilization and associated factors in Metekel Zone, Northwest Ethiopia

Abstract

BACKGROUND: The safe motherhood initiative strongly emphasized ensuring the accessibility and use of prenatal services. However, the utilization of this service is very low even for women who have access to the service in Ethiopia in general and in Benishangul Gumuz Region in particular. Although
socioeconomic and some obstetric factors have been stated by few studies in other areas, the factors associated with low utilization of Antenatal care in Metekel Zone are not well assed before. Therefore, the objective of this study was to assess the status of Antenatal care service utilization and associated
factors among women in the Zone.
METHODS: A community based cross sectional study was conducted from January 25 to February 10, 2007 on randomly selected samples of 1,060 women, who had at least one delivery in the past five years before the survey. Structured questionnaires were used to collect the quantitative data. Focus Group Discussions and in-depth interviews were used to supplement the quantitative data. The data were analyzed using SPSS for Windows version 12.0.1.The data from the qualitative methods were analyzed by using the thematic framework analysis. Independent variables affecting Antenatal care service utilization were determined using multiple logistic regressions.
RESULTS: Of 1060 sampled mothers, data were collected from 1,038 mothers giving a response rate of 97.9%. Five hundred seventeen (49.8%) of the respondents had at least one antenatal care visit during the pregnancy of their last delivery. For the 521 non-users, lack of awareness 268(51.4%) and absence of health problems during pregnancy 213(40.9%) were the main reasons mentioned for not attending antenatal care. Place of residence(OR=1.51, 95%CI: 1.22, 2.78), educational status(OR= 6.52, 95%CI: 1.55, 27.39), husband’s educational status(OR=1.56, 95%CI: 1.11, 2.89), possessing radio(OR=2.08,
95%CI: 1.37, 3.13), monthly income(OR=1.53, 95%CI: 1.22, 3.52) and knowledge about antenatal care(OR=33.33, 95%CI: 20.00, 50.00) were found to have a statistically significant association with antenatal care service utilization.
CONCLUSION: Though better than the national value, the antenatal care service utilization in Metekel Zone was low. Lack of awareness, low educational status and socio-economic characteristics are the common factors observed affecting antenatal care service utilization in the zone. There fore providing information, education and communication, promoting female education, improving socio-economic status of women and husband involvement are recommended.