an examination of the role of antenatal care attendance in ...

3. Introduction
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHOD AND DESIGN
This study used secondary data from the South African Demographic and Health Survey. The
advantage of using readily available data is that it is cost effective in that no cost is needed for data
collection; also it saves time as there is no need to design data gathering tools and also conduct
interviews.
3.1 Research design
3.1.1 Geographical location of the study
The Republic of South Africa is situated in Southern Africa. It has a population of 43.6 million with a
total fertility rate of 2.6 per 1000 (Maternal and Neonatal Program Index 2003). The country has nine
provinces: KwaZulu-Natal, Gauteng, Western Cape, Eastern Cape, Northern Cape, Mpumalanga, Free
State, North West and Northern Province. About 50 percent of the country's population currently falls
below the national poverty line and more than 50 percent of the population still live in rural areas
(Department of Health 1999).
3.1.2 Methodology
The South African Demographic and Health Survey (SADHS) collected in 1998 was used in this study.
The survey was conducted by the Department of Health, Medical Research Council and Macro
International. The main objectives of the SADHS 1998 include the provision of up to date information
on basic demographic indicators and that of maternal and child health status.
Enumeration areas were selected based on the 1996 census data. The sample of this survey was
selected to be nationally representative. Stratified random sampling was used to select the sampling
units for this survey. A total of 12 860 households were selected, of which 12 247 were interviewed.
These included 11 735 women aged 15-49 years who were individually interviewed (Department of
Health 1999). Data from the women's questionnaire was used to answer the research questions in the
study.
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