Utilization of antenatal services in urban slums of Jorhat municipality, Assam, India and the socio - demographic factors affecting it

Abstract

Background: Antenatal service is an important strategy for improvement of maternal and child health, reduction of maternal mortality and neonatal death. But mere presence of this service is not enough. Utilization of the antenatal service is the most important aspect and there are many socio demographic factors that influence the women for its utilization. The objective of the study is to assess the utilization of antenatal services in the urban slums of Jorhat municipality, Assam and the socio - demographic factors affecting it.Methods: A community based cross-sectional study was done among women of the slum areas who had at least a child less than one year by using a pre structured and predesigned questionnaire.  Results: Adequate utilization of antenatal service was 19% while inadequate utilization was 66%. 74.2% of women had at least one dose of TT and 87.2 % consumed Iron and Folic Acid tablets for four months or more. Women who were high school and above had either adequate (13.2%) or inadequate utilization (81.1%) and only 5.7% of them did not have any antenatal service at all as compared to 37.5% among illiterates. Religion, caste, age of the women, parity did not have much role in its utilization. Among women from the joint families who did not have any antenatal service was only 4.8% as compared to 19.2% of women from nuclear families.  Conclusions: Majority of women had inadequate utilization of antenatal service in the slum areas and education played a very important role. Key words: Utilization, antenatal services, slum area.