Prevalence and Related Factors Leading to Inadequate Antenatal Care Use at Public Health Center Yommalath District, Khammouane Province, Lao People’s Democratic Republic

Abstract

Inadequate antenatal care may result in dangerous to both mother and baby especially the problem of maternal mortality during pregnancy and childbirth. Lao PDR is a country that is still experiencing a lot of such problems throughout the country. The objectives of this retrospective study were to determine prevalent rate and related factors of pregnant women who did not complete 4 antenatal visits according to the criteria. The study area was Yommalath District, Khammouane Province, Lao People's Democratic Republic. The subjects used in the study were 234 mothers who came for antenatal care at a public health facility in Yommalath City and gave birth between January 1 and December 31, 2020. The data were gathered by using an interview questionnaire. Data analysis was performed using descriptive statistics and presented as percentage, mean, standard deviation, maximum value and minimum value. Association was analyzed using multiple logistic regression analysis test. The results of the study found that mean age of the participants was 25.61 years ± 5.88 years, the youngest 16 years, the oldest 43 years. Most of them were married, having primary education or lower and being farmers. The prevalent rate of the pregnant women who did not complete four antenatal visits was 70.94%. Factors found to be associated with inadequate antenatal care included the gestational age at first visit greater than 12 weeks, (AOR=178.10, 95% CI=20.63-1537.16), having primary school or lower (AOR=57.23, 95%CI=8.55-382.87), low level of social support (AOR=0.01,95%CI=0.00-0.08), low level of convenience for attending antenatal care (AOR=19.84, 95%CI=6.26-62.89) and middle levels of attitudes towards antenatal care providers and antenatal care facilities (AOR=10.18, 95%CI=1.81-57.08)