Social Characteristics and Factors That Affect Utilization of Antenatal Care Services among Pregnant Women During Last Pregnancy in Quetta, Pakistan

Abstract

Antenatal care (ANC) has been proved to be an important intervention for mothers and unborn child for better outcome of pregnancy. In Quetta the utilization of ANC is low keeping this in mind a study has been conducted to find factors associated with ANC utilization in Quetta City. Three hundred pregnant women aged 18 and above attending ANC services were randomly selected from out patient department of 6 hospitals. They were two government hospital, two private hospital and two not for profit hospital. The study design was a cross-sectional study. A structured questionnaire regarding ANC was used to collect the data. The results of the study revealed that only 62.7% of pregnant women attended ANC once during last pregnancy%. There were many factors associated with ANC utilization. Education of women (p=0.001), and visit by a community health worker (p< 0.001) was positively associated with ANC utilization. Knowledge of women regarding ANC and Here we see an opportunity to conduct an intervention to increase ANC utilization by increasing knowledge and changing attitude of ANC through community participation.