Determinants of women’s antenatal healthcare visit in the Eastern Cape province, South Africa

Abstract

Maternal and child health outcomes are directly correlated with the quality of antenatal healthcare and the number of visits. Despite its importance, women in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa continue to lack access to antenatal healthcare; in some cases, the  mother and unborn child suffer terrible consequences. Yet, individual characteristics such as age, gender, population group, media  consumption just to name a few, which affect women’s number of antenatal healthcare visits are still unknown in the existing body of  knowledge. This study explored the factors influencing the number of antenatal healthcare visits women paid during pregnancy based on  data analysed from the 2016 South Africa Demographic and Health Survey. Using SPSS Version 28, descriptive statistics and cross- tabulations were used for data analysis with a sample of 1041 pregnant women during the survey. The Chi-square test was utilised to  examine the relationship between the number of antenatal healthcare visits and women’s sociodemographic characteristics. The factors associated with the number of antenatal healthcare visits were also identified using multinomial logistic regression. The bivariate results  indicated that the population group of women was associated with the number of antenatal healthcare visits women in the Eastern Cape  made during their pregnancy (χ² =13.481), p=0.036<0.05). The factors significantly associated with women having no antenatal  healthcare visits during pregnancy were age (OR= .255), unemployment (OR=2.120), population group of women, and limited television  exposure (OR=3.727). However, not watching television (OR= 2.052) was significantly associated with women making 1-4 antenatal  healthcare visits. More targeted interventions are expedient for women in the Eastern Cape Province, such as increasing the availability of  mobile clinics and government health facilities.