A comparative study of adult and adolescent maternal care continuum following community-oriented interventions in Cambodia, Guatemala, Kenya, and Zambia

BACKGROUND: The coverage for reproductive care continuum is a growing concern for communities in low- income economies. Adolescents (15–19 years) are often at higher odds of maternal morbidity and mortality due to other underlying factors including biological immaturity, social, and economic differences. The aim of the study was to examine a) differences in care-seeking and continuum of care (4 antenatal care (ANC4+), skilled birth attendance (SBA) and postnatal care (PNC) within 24h) between adult (20–49 Years) and adolescents and b) the effect of multilevel community-oriented interventions on adolescent and adult reproductive care-seeking in Cambodia, Guatemala, Kenya, and Zambia using a quasi-experimental study design. METHODS: In each country, communities in two districts/sub-districts received timed community health worker (CHW) household health promotion and social accountability interventions with community scorecards. Two matched districts/sub-districts were selected for comparison and received routine healthcare services. RESULTS: Results from the final evaluation showed that there were no significant differences in the care continuum for adolescents and adults except for Kenya (26.1% vs 18.8%, p<0.05). SBA was significantly higher for adolescents compared to adult women for Guatemala (64% vs 55.5%, p<0.05). Adolescents in the intervention sites showed significantly higher ANC utilization for Kenya (95.3% vs 84.8%, p<0.01) and Zambia (87% vs 72.7%, p<0.05), ANC4 for Cambodia (83.7% vs 43.2%, p<0.001) and Kenya (65.9% vs 48.1%, p<0.05), SBA for Cambodia (100% vs 88.9%, p<0.05), early PNC for Cambodia (91.8% vs 72.8%, p<0.01) and Zambia (56.5% vs 16.9%, p<0.001) compared to the comparison sites. However, the findings from Guatemala illustrated significantly lower care continuum for intervention sites (aOR:0.34, 95% CI 0.28–0.42, p<0.001). The study provides some evidence on the potential of multilevel community-oriented interventions to improve adolescent healthcare seeking in rural contexts. The predictors of care continuum varied across countries, indicating the importance of contextual factors in designing interventions.