Effect of socio-demographic factors on focused antenatal care services utilization among pregnant women at an informal settlement health centre in Nairobi, Kenya

Abstract

Introduction: Focused Antenatal Care (FANC) is important in standardising maternal health. FANC utilisation involves examining the sufficiency of the number of visits and the maternal healthcare services that expectant women receive. The study examined the effect of socio-demographic factors on FANC services use among expectant women at Lunga Lunga Health Centre, Nairobi County, Kenya. Methods: a cross-sectional study design was adopted to source and analyze data. The study targeted 935 expectant women in their third trimester seeking FANC services at Lunga Lunga Health Centre, of whom 272 were randomly selected to participate in the study. Data was sourced based on a structured questionnaire and data collection sheets. Frequency distribution, percentages, and multivariate binary logistic regression were used in data analysis. Results: findings showed that 9.9% of the 272 expectant women made at least 8 FANC visits to Lunga Lunga Health Centre. Multivariate binary logistic regression revealed that expectant women who had multiple parities (AOR= 0.163, 95% CI= 0.07 - 0.37, p< 0.05), had no spouses (AOR= 0.27, 95% CI= 0.12 - 0.60, p< 0.05), were Muslim (AOR= 0.11, 95% CI= 0.01 - 0.87, p< 0.05) were less likely to receive the recommended 8 FANC visits. Conclusion: the low level of FANC utilisation among expectant women from the informal settlement is attributed to socio-demographic predictors such as marital status, parity, and religion. The findings suggest sensitisation efforts to encourage women on the merits of adequate FANC utilisation. Further research should consider other predictors of FANC utilisation and target more health facilities to improve generalisation of the findings.