Age, Education, Social Support, Migration, and Access to Health Services Predicting Antenatal Visits in Postpartum Mothers: Retrospective Study

Abstract

This predictive research aimed at investigating predictive power of age, education, social support, migration, and access to health services to predict antenatal services in postpartum mothers. The sample consisted of 295 postpartum mothers at Magarak hospital, Kanchanaburi province. Research instruments composed of a personal data interview protocol, a pregnancy and delivery record form, a social support questionnaire with the reliability of .92, and an access to health services questionnaire with the reliability of .90. Data were collected from March to June, 2014. Statistics used for data analysis included frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation, Pearson’s product moment correlation coefficient, and logistic regression analysis.

The study findings revealed that there were significantly positive relationships between antenatal visits in postpartum mothers and these following factors; education (r = .205, p < .001), social support (r = .372, p < .001), and access to health services (r = .326, p < .001). Also, there was significantly negative relationship between antenatal visits in postpartum mothers and migration (r = -.335, p < .001). In addition, it was found that social support, migration, and access to health services could co-predict antenatal visits in postpartum mothers by 31.90% (Nagelkerke R² = .319, p < .05).

This study suggested that nurses should provide social support to pregnant women, especially those who have history of migration or who have communication problems, by using an interpreter to facilitate their access to antenatal services. In addition, there should be an after-hour antenatal services. Finally, nurses should have a proactive practice guideline by offering mobile antenatal services in the remote community