Utilization of Postnatal Care Services after home delivery in Ethiopia: A Multilevel Logistic Regression Analysis

Abstract

Despite postnatal care services significant role in improving maternal and new-born health, services are underutilized in most developing countries including Ethiopia. Utilization of postnatal care services in many countries is very low. This study aimed to determine the prevalence of postnatal care service utilization and also, identify determinant factors of utilization of postnatal care services and assess the variation in the use of this service among different regions of Ethiopia. This was a cross-sectional study using 2016 Ethiopian Demographic and Health Survey data collected from January 18 to June 27, 2016. A total of 7,174 women (age 15-49) were included in the study. The outcome variable was the utilization of postnatal care services. A multilevel logistic regression model was fitted to select factors affecting utilization of postnatal care services in Ethiopia. A 50:50 mixture chi-square distributions were used to test random effects. Among 4385 women that deliver at home only 208 (4.7%) women received postnatal care within 42 days after their most recent delivery. Women who had at least four ANC visits during their last pregnancy (AOR=1.48, 95% CI: 1.05-2.09) were more likely to use postnatal care services than those who had no antenatal care visits. Women residing in urban were 2.67 times (95% CI: 1.41, 5.05) more likely to utilize postnatal care services within 42 days after delivery compared to their counterparts in the rural area. Low postnatal care utilization of mothers in Ethiopia was noticed. Programs to improve postnatal care services in Ethiopia must be designed with giving attention to women having low antenatal care visits, residing in rural area, having low wealth index and low educational level and also give attention to all geographical regions to allow pregnant women to fully benefit from postnatal care services. Key words: Postnatal care, multilevel regression analysis, Ethiopia.