Factors Affecting The Utilization Of Antenatal Care Services In Mandera County, Kenya

Abstract

This study sought to examine the determinants for ANC consumption in Mandera County, Kenya. The purpose of this study was to realize two specific objectives. First, to ascertain the pattern of the utilization of ANC services among women in rural households of Mandera County and secondly, whether the individual characteristics and facility factors demand affect antenatal visits in Mandera County. The study adopted the Human Belief Model for conceptualizing utilization of ANC services among the women. Probit model was applied in the empirical analysis with the explanatory factors being women’s age, place of residence, distance to health facility, household wealth quintile, woman’s education level, marital status of the woman and woman’s employment status. The study relied on the 2014 Kenya Demographic and Health Survey covering 40,300 households from which data file for Mandera County was extracted for analysis, which contained 1,807 observations. The study findings were that ANC utilization among the pregnant women in Mandera County is minimal at best with only 50.53 percent of the women having sought for the antenatal services from the health facilities in the year 2014. Probit model results found that women’s education, age and household’s wealth quintile had a positive effect on the ANC services utilization. Further, women in the rural dwellings were found to be less likely to utilize ANC services compared to their counterparts in the urban dwellings. Distance to the nearest health facility was found to have a negative and significant effect on ANC utilization. However, women’s marital status and their current employment status were found not to have any significant effect. From the findings, the study recommends for the need for the county government to empower the rural households through investing in the community livelihood empowerment programmes at large to boost their wealth status. Secondly, the county government should focus on the expansion of the health facilities’ infrastructure to bring ANC Services closer to households. Finally, there exists a necessity for sensitization and awareness creation among women who have no education.