Determinants of late antenatal care booking among pregnant teenagers in Degua Tembien district, Tigray, Northern Ethiopia: A community-based case-control study
Abstract
Background
To fully benefit from Antenatal Care (ANC) based interventions, it is vital that pregnant women should start the visit as early as their pregnancy period and should attend at least eight ANC visits. However, in Ethiopia, fifty to eighty percent of pregnant mothers had delayed first ANC booking among which teenagers are disproportionately affected from delayed ANC service utilization.
Objective
This study aimed to identify determinants of late ANC booking among pregnant teenagers in Degua Tembien district, Tigray, Northern Ethiopia.
Method
Using a data from community-based case-control study, which was collected in 2015, a total of 129 pregnant teenagers (66 case and 63 controls) who approached through house-to-house visit were included in the analysis. Statistical Packages for Social Science (SPSS) version 21 was used for analysis. Variables with p-value of < 0.25 in bi-variable analysis were included in the multivariable logistic regression model to identify the predictors of the late ANC booking. Finally, statistically significance was considered at p-value of < 0.05.
Results
In this study, though it was not significant, higher proportion of cases (10.6%) than controls (6.3%) were in the age groups of 15-17 years. No past history of contraception utilization (Adjusted Odds Ratio (AOR) = 2.88; 95% Confidence Interval (CI) (1.04, 8.02)) and not watching television /listening radio at least once per week (AOR=2.37; 95%CI (1.10, 5.09)) were predictors of late ANC booking among pregnant teenagers.
Conclusions
No past history of contraception utilization and not exposed to mass-media were determinants of late antenatal care booking among pregnant teenagers in this study. Therefore, community mobilization programs using the existing community-based organizations on continuum of care and advantage of timely service utilization should be adapted to mitigate late ANC booking among teenagers.
