An investigation of factors affecting utilisation of antenatal care services among women in post-natal wards in Namibian hospitals. A case study of Intermediate Katutura and Windhoek Central Hospitals
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Date
2022
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Publisher
University of Namibia
Abstract
Antenatal care services are the care provided by skilled health-care professionals to
pregnant women to ensure the best health for both mother and baby during pregnancy and
after delivery. Utilisation is a quantification or description of the use of services by
persons to prevent and cure health problems, promoting maintenance of health and well being, or obtaining information about one's health status and prognosis. In Namibia
utilisation of antenatal care services has been reported to be dropping from 97% in 2013
to 91% in 2016. The purpose of this study was to investigate the factors affecting the
utilisation of antenatal care services among women in post-natal wards at the Intermediate
Katutura Hospital and Windhoek Central Hospital in Khomas region. The objectives of
the study were to investigate the factors affecting the utilisation of ANC services and to
investigate association of the factors affecting utilisation of antenatal care services among
the mothers admitted in the postnatal wards at the selected hospitals.
A quantitative approach and a cross-sectional analytical design were used to carry out the
study. The population of the study was all mothers who delivered and were admitted to
the postnatal ward of Intermediate Hospital Katutura and Windhoek Central Hospital
during the time of the study. Data were collected from a total sample of 320 mothers
using self-administered structured questionnaires. The data were analysed using the
Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) Version 25 software. Desc'riptive statistics
were used to analyse factors influencing the utilisation of ANC services among the
respondents. Chi-square and Fisher's exact tests were used to investigate the association
between categorical variables in the study. The back ward stepwise Binary logistic
regression was used to predict the odds of not utilizing ANC based on the values of the
independent variables (predictor).
The participants of the study were aged between 18 years and 42 years with a mean age
of 27 years. The result shows that 229 (71.6%) utilised ANC while 91(28.4%) did not
utilise ANC services. Utilisation of ANC was significantly associated with women's
attitude toward the current pregnancy (p-value 0.0 14).
The study identified factors that affect utilisation of ANC services such as age, marital
status, mothers education, partner's formal education, negative attitude of health care
providers, long distance to and from ANC health care facilities, fear of HIV test and
results, Covid-19 regulations, inability to determine the pregnancy at the earlier stages
and financial constraints. Based on this study findings, it is recommended that the
utilisation of ANC might be improved through effective community mobilisation and
outreach of maternity services to educate and improve awareness on the importance of
ANC. Furthermore, qualitative research utilising interviews may be conducted for the in depth feedback from participants. Finally, a countrywide study may be conducted to
reflect the true picture of antenatal care utilisation in Namibia
Description
A research thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirement for the Master's Degree of Nursing Science
Keywords
Antenatal care services, Factors, Utilisation, Antenatal Care (ANC), University of Namibia, Namibia