Determinants for the Utilization of Antenatal Care in Nepal

Abstract

INTRODUCTION Antenatal Care (ANC) is an essential component of maternal health service and every woman should receive at least four ANC as prescribed. The aim of this study was to determine the individual, household and community factors responsible for the utilization of the ANC. METHODS An analytical cross-sectional study was conducted in the three randomly selected districts representing the three ecological zones of Nepal among 1302 women with a face to face interview. RESULTS The result of the study showed that 60.8% women received at least 4 ANC according to a national guideline. In multivariate analysis based on the binary logistic regression analysis six out of twelve individual (education (secondary and higher), occupation (business), media exposure, knowledge on BP&CR, knowledge on 4 ANC and knowledge on 4 ANC incentive), five-out of-eight household (family size (≤4), ethnicity (Brahmin/Chhetri), source of household income (job and remit), household income (middle, fourth and highest), sex of decision maker in household regarding health care (female)) and six out of ten community (involvement in community organization, involvement in income saving in community, access to FCHV, distance to nearest government health facility (≤2 km), availability of public transportation and time taken to reach nearest government health facility (≤30 minutes)) factors were revealed as important determinants for the utilization of ANC.