Examining the impact of WHO’s Focused Antenatal Care policy on early access, underutilisation and quality of antenatal care services in Malawi: a retrospective study

Table 3 Social and demographic characteristics

Variables	Means or Proportions		P-value
Variables	Pre- FANC	Post- FANC	Difference in means or proportions
Main outcome variables
Early access	0.26	0.29	0.0007^***
Number of visits	4.04	3.76	0.0000^***
Standardized ANC quality index	0.71	0.74	0.0000^***
Confounding variables
Mother’s education level
No education	0.27	0.21	0.0000^***
Primary	0.62	0.65	0.0369^**
Secondary	0.10	0.14	0.0000^***
Tertiary	0.00	0.01	0.0291^**
Type of residence
Rural	0.85	0.84	0.0013^**
Urban	0.15	0.14	0.0013^**
HIV-test statistics
Women who reported having ever been tested for HIV/AIDS	0.15	0.41	0.0000^***
Pregnancy risk indicators
Age: 16 and below	0.02	0.02	0.6901
Age: above 40	0.04	0.05	0.1182
History of miscarriages	0.11	0.13	0.0059^*
History of caesarean deliveries	0.03	0.05	0.0004^***
Media access
Radio
Not at all	0.23	0.22	0.3416
Less than once a week	0.18	0.16	0.0014^**
At least once a week	0.12	0.16	0.0000^***
Almost every day	0.47	0.46	0.2414
Television
Not at all	0.90	0.83	0.0000^***
Less than once a week	0.05	0.08	0.0000^***
At least once a week	0.02	0.03	0.0000^***
Almost every day	0.03	0.06	0.0000^***

Notes: ^***1% level of significance; ^** 5% level of significance and ^*10% level of significance

ISSN: 1472-6963