Utilisation of Antenatal Care Services and its Determinants among Pregnant Women Attending Tertiary Care Hospital in Western India: A Cross-sectional Study
LC22-LC26
Correspondence
Dr. Nitin Lodha,
14, Jagdish Park Society Part 1, Behrampura, Ahmedabad-380022, Gujarat, India.
E-mail: nitinlodha17@gmail.com
Introduction: Good quality Antenatal Care (ANC) is not uniformly distributed in the community. A better ANC coverage not only ensures a safer outcome from pregnancy but also provides a platform for improving the health status of mother and baby.
Aim: To assess the utilisation of ANC services among the pregnant women and to study the associated factors related to utilisation of ANC.
Materials and Methods: This was a hospital-based cross-sectional study conducted among 250 full term pregnant women in tertiary care hospital in Vadnagar, Gujarat, India from June 2021 to August 2021. Systemic random sampling technique was adapted to select required participants. Women were interviewed, using predesigned and pretested semi-structured proforma, to assess the ANC received by them. Categorical variables were expressed as frequency and proportions, continuous variables as mean and standard deviation. Chi-square test was used to found association between comprehensive ANC and various determinants affecting it and logistic regressions were applied to find out the predictors.
Results: Mean age of the participants were 25.31±4.09 years. A total of 205 (82%) of participants were literate and 210 (84%) pregnant women were from rural area. About 69.2% participants belonged to joint family and 92.4% were housewife. Majority of the participants were from class IV (63.6%) and V (16%) socio-economic class. About 66% participants were multigravida. All study participants were registered. A 87.2% women had early registration of pregnancy (within 12 weeks), 93.6% had atleast four ANC visits, 98.4% had taken two doses or one booster dose of Tetnus Toxoid (TT) injections and 71.2% women had taken minimum 100 iron and folic acid tablets. Total 69.2% of the mothers had received the full ANC. Significant relation was found between utilisation of full ANC with age of women, residence area, education, socio-economic class and parity.
Conclusion: Full ANC utilisation was inadequate. Most of the indicators seemed better, only Iron Folic Acid (IFA) tablets consumption was poor. There is a need for intensified and targeted awareness programs for pregnant women on the importance of antenatal visits and utilisation of various services.