TITLE:
Impact of the Changes in Women’s Characteristics over Time on Antenatal Health Care Utilization in Egypt (2000-2008)
AUTHORS:
Hassan H. M. Zaky, Dina M. Armanious, Mohamed Ali Hussein
KEYWORDS:
Women’s Characteristics, Antenatal Health Care, Women’s Empowerment, Zero-Inflated Negative Binomial Regression, Egypt
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology,
Vol.5 No.10,
September
2,
2015
ABSTRACT: Objectives: This study empirically assesses the impact of the changes in
women’s characteristics, empowerment, availability and quality of health
services on woman’s decision to use antenatal care (ANC) and the frequency of that
use during the period 2000-2008. Study Design: The study is a cross-sectional
analytical study using 2000 and 2008 Egypt Demographic and Health Surveys.
Methods: The assessment of the studied impact is conducted using the
Zero-inflated Negative Binomial Regression. In addition, Factor Analysis
technique is used to construct some of the explanatory variables such as women’s
empowerment, the availability and quality of health services indicators.
Results: Utilization of antenatal health care services is greatly improved from
2000 to 2008. Availability of health services is one of the main determinants
that affect the number of antenatal care visits in 2008. Wealth index and
quality of health services play an important role in raising the level of
antenatal care utilization in 2000 and 2008. However, the impact of the terminated
pregnancy on receiving ANC increased over time. Conclusions: Further research of the determinants of antenatal
health care utilization is needed, using more updated measures of women’s
empowerment, availability and quality of health services. In order to
improve the provision of antenatal health care services, it is important to
understand barriers to antenatal health
care utilization. Therefore, it is advisable to collect
information from women about the reasons for not receiving antenatal care.