Utilisation of Antenatal Care Services and its Determinants among Pregnant Women Attending Tertiary Care Hospital in Western India: A Cross-sectional Study

Abstract

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: Present was a hospital-based cross-sectional study conducted among 250 full term pregnant women. 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 was 25.31±4.09 years. A total of 205 (82%) of participants were literate and 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%) socioeconomic 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. About 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, her 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