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Timing and utilisation of antenatal care service in Nigeria and Malawi
Authors: Vincent Z. Kuuire, Joseph Kangmennaang, Kilian N. Atuoye, Roger Antabe, Sheila A. Boamah, Siera Vercillo, Jonathan A. Amoyaw, and Isaac Luginaah
Source: Global Public Health, 12(6): 711-727; http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17441692.2017.1316413
Topic(s): Antenatal care
Maternal health
Wealth Index
Country: Africa
  Malawi
  Nigeria
Published: APR 2017
Abstract: As the world draws curtains on the implementation of Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), there is increasing interest in evaluating the performance of countries on the goals and assessing related challenges and opportunities to inform the upcoming Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This study examined changes in the timing and utilisation of maternal health care services in Nigeria and Malawi; using multivariate negative log–log and logistic regression models fitted to demographic and health survey data sets. Predicted probabilities were also computed to observe the net differences in the likelihood of both the first and the required number of antenatal care (ANC) visits for each of the three analysis years. Women in Nigeria were 7% less likely in 2008 compared to 2003, and in Malawi, 32% more likely in 2013 compared to 2000, to utilise ANC in the first trimester of pregnancy. Timing of first ANC visit was strongly influenced by wealth in Nigeria but not in Malawi. The findings in our case studies show how various contextual factors may enable or inhibit policy performance. Maternal and child health, SDGs should incorporate both wealth and degrees of urbanicity into country level implementation strategies. KEYWORDS: Maternal health, antenatal care, sub-Saharan Africa, MDGs, post-2015, residential wealth index