Spatial variation and factors associated with home delivery after ANC visit in Ethiopia; spatial and multilevel analysis

INTRODUCTION: Institutional delivery is crucial to reduce maternal and neonatal mortality as well as serious morbidities. However, in Ethiopia, home delivery (attended by an unskilled birth attendant) after antenatal care (ANC) visit is highly in practice. Therefore, this study aimed to assess the spatial variation and determinants of home delivery after antenatal care visits in Ethiopia. METHOD: A secondary data analysis was conducted using the 2019 mini Ethiopian demographic and health survey. A total of 2,923 women who had ANC visits were included. Spatial analysis was done by using GIS 10.7 and SaTscan 9.6. The risk areas for home delivery from GIS and spatial scan statistics results were reported. A multi-level logistic regression model was fitted using Stata14 to identify individual and community-level factors associated with home delivery after ANC visit. Finally, AOR with 95% CI and random effects were reported. RESULT: Home delivery after ANC visit was spatially clustered in Ethiopia(Moran’s index = 0.52, p-value <0.01). The primary clusters were detected in Oromia and SNNP region (LLR = 37.48, p < 0.001 and RR = 2.30) and secondary clusters were located in Benishangul Gumuz, Amhara, Tigray and Afar (LLR = 29.45, p<0.001 and RR = 1.54). Being rural resident (AOR = 2.52; 95%CI 1.09–5.78), having no formal education (AOR = 3.19;95% CI 1.11–9.16), being in the poor (AOR = 2.20;95%CI 1.51–3.22) and middle wealth index (AOR = 2.07;95% CI 1.44–2.98), having one ANC visit (AOR = 2.64; 95% CI 1.41–4.94), and living in the agrarian region (AOR = 3.63; 95%CI 1.03–12.77) had increased the odds of home delivery after ANC visit. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION: Home delivery after ANC visit was spatially clustered in Ethiopia. Factors like maternal education, wealth index, number of ANC visits, residency and region were significantly associated with home delivery after ANC visit. Therefore, it is better to increase the number of ANC contact by giving health education, especially for women with low levels of education and better to improve the wealth status of women. A special strategy is also vital to reduce home delivery after ANC visit in those high-risk regions.