Title : Time to initiation of antenatal care and its predictors among pregnant women who delivered in arba minch town public health facilities, gamo zone, Southern Ethiopia, 2023
Abstract:
Early antenatal care visits are important for optimal care and health outcomes for pregnant women and their children. In the study area, there is a lack of information about the time to initiation of antenatal care. So, this study aimed to determine the time to initiation of antenatal care visits and its predictors among pregnant women who delivered in Arba Minch town public health facilities.
Methods: An institution-based retrospective follow-up study was performed. A systematic random sampling technique was employed to select the study participants. The Kaplan-Meier survival curve was used to estimate the survival time. A Multivariable Cox proportional hazard regression model was fitted to identify predictors of the time to initiation of antenatal care. An adjusted hazard ratio with a 95% confidence interval was used to assess statistical significance.
Results: The median survival time to antenatal care initiation was 18 weeks (95% CI = (17, 19)). Urban residence (AHR = 2.67; 95% CI = 1.52, 4.71), Tertiary and above level of education of the women (AHR = 1.90; 95% CI = 1.28, 2.81), having pregnancy-related complications in a previous pregnancy (AHR = 1.53; 95% CI = 1.08, 2.16), not having antenatal care for previous pregnancy (AHR = 0.39; 95% CI = 0.21, 0.71) and unplanned pregnancy (AHR = 0.66; 95% CI = 0.48, 0.91) were statistically significant predictors.
Conclusion and Recommendation: Half of the women initiate their antenatal care visit after 18 weeks, which is not in line with the recommendation of the World Health Organization. Residence, Level of education of the women, previous pregnancy-related complications, and previous antenatal care visit and pregnancy intention were predictor variables. So, intervention is needed according to the identified predictors.