Factors associated with quality of antenatal care in central Uganda

Abstract

Antenatal Care (ANC) prepares women for birth and provides key information on averting pregnancy related complications. ANC attendance is critical for reducing maternal mortality and early neonatal deaths. The aim of this study was to examine factors associated with quality of antenatal care in central Uganda. This study used the 2016 Uganda Demographic and Health Survey data to examine the association between quality antenatal care services and background and proximate factors. The study considered 5,481 women of reproductive age who attended antenatal care in a period of at most five years prior to the survey who were considered in the 2016 Uganda Demographic and Health Survey.

Frequency distributions of women characteristics were generated at the first level of analysis. Cross tabulations were conducted and chi squared tests were used to determine the associations between quality antenatal care services and each explanatory variable. Binary logistic regression model was used to examine the factors associated with quality antenatal care

Close to one in five (19.7 %) women received good quality ANC. Results show that increased odds of receiving good quality antenatal care were observed among mothers with secondary or more education level (OR=3.013; p=0.001) compared with mothers who had no education. Mothers who reported that getting money for health was not a big problem (OR=1.594;p=0.003) had increased odds of receiving good quality antenatal care as compared to mothers who reported that getting money for health was a big problem. Mothers who had at least four antenatal care visits (OR=1.907; p=0.000) had increased odds of receiving good quality antenatal care compared with those who had less than four visits. Mothers who resided in a rural setting (OR=0.682; p=0.032) had decreased odds of receiving good quality antenatal care compared with those who resided in urban setting. The study recommends that Government and development partners should prioritize setting up reproductive health units in rural areas to improve access. Parliament and Ministry of Education should enact laws and put up incentives with intention of making girls stay in schools like universal free education and affirmative action. Government and development partners should introduce projects that support household income generation activities where women are given first priority as principle beneficiaries. Government and development partners should initiate programs that promote awareness on merits of completing all antenatal visits.