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Higher Educational Attainment Associated with Optimal Antenatal Care Visits among Childbearing Women in Zambia

OBJECTIVE: Attendance of at least four antenatal care (ANC) visits over the period of pregnancy has been accepted by World Health Organization to comprise the optimal and adequate standard of ANC because of its positive association with good maternal and neonatal outcomes during the prenatal period....

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Autores principales: Muyunda, Brian, Makasa, Mpundu, Jacobs, Choolwe, Musonda, Patrick, Michelo, Charles
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2016
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4909780/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27379228
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2016.00127
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author Muyunda, Brian
Makasa, Mpundu
Jacobs, Choolwe
Musonda, Patrick
Michelo, Charles
author_facet Muyunda, Brian
Makasa, Mpundu
Jacobs, Choolwe
Musonda, Patrick
Michelo, Charles
author_sort Muyunda, Brian
collection PubMed
description OBJECTIVE: Attendance of at least four antenatal care (ANC) visits over the period of pregnancy has been accepted by World Health Organization to comprise the optimal and adequate standard of ANC because of its positive association with good maternal and neonatal outcomes during the prenatal period. Despite free ANC being provided, many pregnant women have been found not to meet this minimum number of ANC visits in Zambia. We investigated if educational attainment is associated with optimal ANC visits among childbearing women in Zambia. METHODS: Data stem from the 2007 Zambia Demographic and Health Survey for women, aged 15–49 years, who reported ever having been pregnant in the 5 years preceding the survey. The linked data comprised sociodemographic and other obstetrical data, which were cleaned, recoded, and analyzed using STATA version 12 (Stata Corporation, College Station, TX, USA). Multivariate logistic regression was used to examine the association of educational attainment and other background variables. RESULTS: Women who had higher education level were more likely to attend at least four ANC visits compared to those with no education (AOR 2.8, 95% CI 1.51–5.15; p = 0.001); this was especially true in the urban areas. In addition, women with partners with higher education level were also more likely to have optimal ANC attendance (OR 2.0, 95% CI 1.3–3.1; p = 0.002). CONCLUSION: Educational attainment-associated differentials found to be linked with optimal ANC attendance in this population suggests that access to health care is still driven by inequity-related dynamics and imbalances. Given that inequity stresses are heaviest in the uneducated and probably rural and poor groups, interventions should aim to reach this group. SIGNIFICANCE: The study results will help program managers to increase access to ANC services and direct interventional efforts towards the affected subpopulations, such as the young, uneducated, and rural women. Furthermore, results will help promote maternal health education and advise policy makers and program implementers.
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spelling pubmed-49097802016-07-04 Higher Educational Attainment Associated with Optimal Antenatal Care Visits among Childbearing Women in Zambia Muyunda, Brian Makasa, Mpundu Jacobs, Choolwe Musonda, Patrick Michelo, Charles Front Public Health Public Health OBJECTIVE: Attendance of at least four antenatal care (ANC) visits over the period of pregnancy has been accepted by World Health Organization to comprise the optimal and adequate standard of ANC because of its positive association with good maternal and neonatal outcomes during the prenatal period. Despite free ANC being provided, many pregnant women have been found not to meet this minimum number of ANC visits in Zambia. We investigated if educational attainment is associated with optimal ANC visits among childbearing women in Zambia. METHODS: Data stem from the 2007 Zambia Demographic and Health Survey for women, aged 15–49 years, who reported ever having been pregnant in the 5 years preceding the survey. The linked data comprised sociodemographic and other obstetrical data, which were cleaned, recoded, and analyzed using STATA version 12 (Stata Corporation, College Station, TX, USA). Multivariate logistic regression was used to examine the association of educational attainment and other background variables. RESULTS: Women who had higher education level were more likely to attend at least four ANC visits compared to those with no education (AOR 2.8, 95% CI 1.51–5.15; p = 0.001); this was especially true in the urban areas. In addition, women with partners with higher education level were also more likely to have optimal ANC attendance (OR 2.0, 95% CI 1.3–3.1; p = 0.002). CONCLUSION: Educational attainment-associated differentials found to be linked with optimal ANC attendance in this population suggests that access to health care is still driven by inequity-related dynamics and imbalances. Given that inequity stresses are heaviest in the uneducated and probably rural and poor groups, interventions should aim to reach this group. SIGNIFICANCE: The study results will help program managers to increase access to ANC services and direct interventional efforts towards the affected subpopulations, such as the young, uneducated, and rural women. Furthermore, results will help promote maternal health education and advise policy makers and program implementers. Frontiers Media S.A. 2016-06-16 /pmc/articles/PMC4909780/ /pubmed/27379228 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2016.00127 Text en Copyright © 2016 Muyunda, Makasa, Jacobs, Musonda and Michelo. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Public Health
Muyunda, Brian
Makasa, Mpundu
Jacobs, Choolwe
Musonda, Patrick
Michelo, Charles
Higher Educational Attainment Associated with Optimal Antenatal Care Visits among Childbearing Women in Zambia
title Higher Educational Attainment Associated with Optimal Antenatal Care Visits among Childbearing Women in Zambia
title_full Higher Educational Attainment Associated with Optimal Antenatal Care Visits among Childbearing Women in Zambia
title_fullStr Higher Educational Attainment Associated with Optimal Antenatal Care Visits among Childbearing Women in Zambia
title_full_unstemmed Higher Educational Attainment Associated with Optimal Antenatal Care Visits among Childbearing Women in Zambia
title_short Higher Educational Attainment Associated with Optimal Antenatal Care Visits among Childbearing Women in Zambia
title_sort higher educational attainment associated with optimal antenatal care visits among childbearing women in zambia
topic Public Health
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4909780/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27379228
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2016.00127
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