Urban-rural disparities of antenatal care in South East Asia: a case study in the Philippines and Indonesia

• Main Authors: Ratna Dwi Wulandari, -, Agung Dwi Laksono, -, NIKMATUR ROHMAH, -
• Format: Article PeerReviewed
• Language: English; English; English; English
• Published: BioMed Central Ltd. 2021
• Subjects: R Medicine
• Online Access: https://repository.unair.ac.id/125468/1/Artikel%20Urban%20rural%20disparities%20of%20antenatal%20care%20in%20South%20East%20Asia.pdf; https://repository.unair.ac.id/125468/2/Korespondensi%20urban%20rual%20disparities%20of%20antenatal%20care%20in%20Shouth%20East%20Asia.pdf; https://repository.unair.ac.id/125468/3/Turnitin_Urban-rural%20disparities%20of%20antenatal%20care%20in%20South%20East%20Asia.pdf; https://repository.unair.ac.id/125468/4/Validasi%20dan%20Penilaian_4_Urban-rural%20disparities%20of%20antenatal%20care%20in%20South%20East%20Asia.pdf; https://repository.unair.ac.id/125468/; https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com; https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-021-11318-2
• Institution: Universitas Airlangga

Background: The government is obliged to guarantee equal access to antenatal care (ANC) between urban and rural areas. This study aimed to analyze urban-rural disparities in ≥4 ANC visits during pregnancy in the Philippines and Indonesia. Methods: The study processed data from the 2017 PDHS and the 2017 IDHS. The analysis unit was women aged 15–49 years old who had given birth in the last 5 years. The weighted sample size was 7992 respondents in the Philippines and 14,568 respondents in Indonesia. Apart from ANC as the dependent variable, other variables analyzed were residence, age, husband/partner, education, parity, and wealth. Determination of urban-rural disparities using binary logistic regression. Results: The results show that women in the urban Philippines are 0.932 times more likely than women in the rural Philippines to make ≥4 ANC visits. On the other side, women in urban Indonesia are more likely 1.255 times than women in rural Indonesia to make ≥4 ANC visits. Apart from the type of residence place (urban-rural), five other tested multivariate variables also proved significant contributions to ANC’s use in both countries, i.e., age, have a husband/partner, education, parity, and wealth status. Conclusions: The study concluded that disparities exist between urban and rural areas utilizing ANC in the Philippines and Indonesia. Pregnant women in the rural Philippines have a better chance of making ≥4 ANC visits. Meanwhile, pregnant women in urban Indonesia have a better chance of making ≥4 ANC visits.