Effects of socio demographic and institutional factors on utilization of antenatal care services among pregnant women in Damaturu, Yobe State, Nigeria

Pregnancy-related morbidities and mortalities remain a major challenge in developing countries like Nigeria where most of them were associated with poor/underutilization of antenatal care (ANC) services. This study, therefore, aims to examine the effect of socio-demographic and institutional factors on the utilization of antenatal care services among pregnant women in Damaturu, Yobe state, Nigeria. A descriptive study was carried out among 204 women (15-49 years) who have given birth within the last 12 months or are pregnant at the time of the study. Purposive sampling was used, and data were collected using structured questionnaire/interview guide. To establish the effect of socio-demographic and institutional factors on the utilization of ANC services, bivariate analysis using Pearson’s chi-square test was conducted. The results showed that majority of the respondents are housewives between the ages of 30-34 years. Of these, only 49% of the women received the minimum required ANC of four visits. In the correlations analysis using chi-square test, age (P<0.001), marital status (P<0.001), level of education (P<0.001), level of income (P= 0.002), distance of health facility (P= 0.006), opening days (P<0.001), attitudes of health workers (P<0.001) and quality of service provided (P=0.003) were found to be strong indicators of utilization of ANC services. However, occupation (P= 0.114), religion (P= 0.249) and parity (P= 0.333) have no significant relationship with utilization of ANC services. The study thus concluded that increase in awareness and accessibility to health facilities were crucial towards enhancing women utilization of ANC services.