Antenatal Care Utilization And Child Survival Among Women In Ghana

ABSTRACT

Globally, about 7.7 million children under five years died in 2010. In Ghana, the under-five mortality rate is estimated at 72 deaths per 1000 live births in 2012 according to UNICEF. Although there has been a decline in under-five mortality in Ghana, substantial progress is required to achieve the Millennium Development Goal 4 by reducing child mortality by 2015. Several interventions have been put in place to ensure child survival. The study aimed at examining the relationship between antenatal care as one of the interventions and child survival in Ghana. Data used in the study were from the 2008 Ghana Demographic and Health Survey. Frequency of antenatal visits, tetanus injection and iron folic acid were used to establish the relationship between antenatal care utilization and child survival. Binary logistics regression models were used to examine the effect of independent variables on the dependent variable. The findings showed that about 70.8 percent of respondents were aged 15-34, 96.6 percent of women visited antenatal care clinics at least once but 78.2% visited antenatal clinics more than three times. About 86.1 percent took at least one folic tablet and 59.0 percent adequately received tetanus injection. Results from the bivariate analysis revealed that tetanus injection, frequency of ANC visit, and iron folic acid were not statistically significant with child survival. However, education, mode of delivery and months of breastfeeding were found to have significant relationship with child survival. About 96.6 percent of children under five whose mothers’ visited antenatal clinic more than three times survive as compared to 94.5 percent of women with no ANC visit. Also, women who took less than 90 iron folic acid tablets and those who did not receive any tetanus injection had the highest percentage of survival. In the multivariate analysis, age of mother, education, ethnicity, birth interval and months of breastfeeding were found to have significant association with child survival. This implies that age, education, birth interval, and months of breastfeeding are predictors of child survival in Ghana. Therefore, education campaigns on breastfeeding should be strengthened to prolong duration of breastfeeding, women should be encouraged to attend antenatal clinics especially teenagers, and encouraged to space their birth.