Determinants of antenatal care service utilization among adolescent mothers of (10-19) years of age at Kanyama level one hospital in Lusaka district.

IntroductionThe provision of adequate antenatal care services is crucial for promoting maternal and child health. Therefore, it is necessary to understand the factors influencing the use of these services, especially among special groups such as adolescents. Adolescents, defined as individuals between the ages of 10 and 19 years, face specific challenges and vulnerabilities during pregnancy and childbirth. Hence, it is vital to develop targeted interventions to improve their reproductive health outcomes. This study analyzed the factors associated with antenatal care utilization among adolescent mothers in Zambia. MethodologyThe study used a cross sectional study design. Data was collected using a structured questionnaire from adolescents who were 8 months pregnant or more and adolescents who were already mothers at Kanyama level one hospital in Lusaka. Descriptive statistics of individual characteristics were developed to describe the data. Associations between ANC utilization and independent variables was tested using the Chi-Square test and multivariate logistic regression. ResultsThe proportion of antenatal care utilization in this study was 39.37%. At multivariate analysis, factors that were significantly associated with antenatal care utilization were past pregnant experience (OR = 0.35; 95% CI: 0.14 to 0.85) and partners education (OR = 1.38; 95% CI: 1.02 to 1.87). However, Partner education did not have a statistical significance between levels of education and ANC utilization. This could have been due to a small sample size. Other studies however, reviewed a significant statistical relationship between levels of education and adolescent ANC utilization. ConclusionThe findings underscore a low proportion of antenatal care utilization among adolescent mothers. Particularly low proportion of ANC utilization was found in adolescents mothers who had never experienced pregnancy in the past.