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

35-49 (17 percent). Similarly, marital status was also found to be significantly (X 2 = 18.797; p= 0.001)
associated with timing of first antenatal care visit. Currently married women were significantly more
likely to initiate their first antenatal care visit in their first trimester (28 percent) compared with never
married (18 percent) and formerly married women (19.7 percent).
Parity had a significant (X 2 = 27.024; p= 0.000) relationship with timing of first antenatal care visit.
Women with six or more children were less likely to visit an antenatal care facility in their first
trimester compared with other groups. Only 8.4 percent of women with six or more children reported
initiating their first antenatal care visit in their first trimester, compared with women with few children.
Level of education was also significantly (X 2 = 7.544; p = 0.23) associated with timing of first antenatal
care. More than 24 percent of women with secondary or higher level of education reported initiating
their first antenatal care visit in their first trimester, compared with 21 percent of women with primary
or less education.
Similarly, socio-economic status was also found to be significantly (X 2 = 96.265; p= 0.000) associated
with timing of first antenatal care visit. The majority of women with a high API (59.8 percent) reported
initiating their first antenatal care visit in their first trimester compared with women with a low (9.8
percent), medium (17.9 percent) and medium high API (25.3 percent).
4.6 Adverse birth outcomes by timing and frequency of antenatal, delivery site and
background characteristics
Table 4.7 shows the relationship between birth outcomes and number of antenatal care, site of delivery
and socio-demographic factors. The finding suggest that women with no antenatal care (28.6 percent)
are more likely to have adverse birth outcomes compared with those attending in their first trimester
(26.1 percent) and those attending in their second to third trimester (27.1 percent). However, the results
were found not to be statistically significant (X 2 = 0.163; p = 0.922).
43