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High coverage but low quality of maternal and newborn health services in the coverage cascade: who is benefitted and left behind in accessing better quality health services in Nepal?
Authors: Resham B. Khatri, Jo Durham, Rajendra Karkee and Yibeltal Assefa
Source: Reproductive Health, Volume 19, issue 163; DOI:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12978-022-01465-z
Topic(s): Antenatal care
Health equity
Institutional births
Maternal health
Country: Asia
  Nepal
Published: JUL 2022
Abstract: Background: Antenatal care (ANC) visits, institutional delivery, and postnatal care (PNC) visits are vital to improve the health of mothers and newborns. Despite improved access to these routine maternal and newborn health (MNH) services in Nepal, little is known about the cascade of health service coverage, particularly contact coverage, intervention-specific coverage, and quality-adjusted coverage of MNH services. This study examined the cascade of MNH services coverage, as well as social determinants associated with uptake of quality MNH services in Nepal. Methods: We conducted a secondary analysis of data derived from the Nepal Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS) 2016, taking 1978 women aged 15–49 years who had a live birth in the 2 years preceding the survey. Three outcome variables were (i) four or more (4+) ANC visits, (ii) institutional delivery, and (iii) first PNC visit for mothers and newborns within 48 h of childbirth. We applied a cascade of health services coverage, including contact coverage, intervention-specific and quality-adjusted coverage, using a list of specific intervention components for each outcome variable. Several social determinants of health were included as independent variables to identify determinants of uptake of quality MNH services. We generated a quality score for each outcome variable and dichotomised the scores into two categories of “poor” and “optimal” quality, considering >?0.8 as a cut-off point. Binomial logistic regression was conducted and odds ratios (OR) were reported with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) at the significance level of p?
Web: https://reproductive-health-journal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12978-022-01465-z