Low antenatal care utilization among multiparous women in Mbuji-Mayi, Democratic Republic of the Congo: prevalence and associated factors

Low antenatal care utilization among multiparous women in Mbuji-Mayi, Democratic Republic of the Congo: prevalence and associated factors | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Low antenatal care utilization among multiparous women in Mbuji-Mayi, Democratic Republic of the Congo: prevalence and associated factors Alix NTAMBUA KAMINA, Josephine LUBUYA MUKUNA, Joel TSHIBUMBU MUKENDI, and 4 more This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-9393525/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Background: Antenatal care is essential for preventing pregnancy complications and improving maternal and neonatal outcomes. However, low utilization of antenatal care services remains a major public health problem in many low- and middle-income countries, particularly among multiparous women who often perceive pregnancy as a routine event. Objective: This study aimed to determine the prevalence of low antenatal care utilization and identify associated factors among multiparous women in Mbuji-Mayi, Democratic Republic of the Congo. Methods: A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted among multiparous women. Data were collected using structured questionnaires and analyzed using descriptive statistics and logistic regression. Odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals were calculated to assess associations between independent variables and low antenatal care utilization, and multivariate logistic regression was performed to identify factors independently associated with low antenatal care utilization. Results: The prevalence of low antenatal care utilization was 33.6%. In multivariate analysis, low education level (AOR = 1.77; 95% CI: 1.15–2.73; p = 0.010), unmarried marital status (AOR = 2.63; 95% CI: 1.18–5.86; p = 0.018), living at least 5 km from a health facility (AOR = 1.85; 95% CI: 1.19–2.88; p = 0.006), and lack of knowledge about the recommended number of antenatal care visits (AOR = 2.09; 95% CI: 1.37–3.20; p = 0.001) were independently associated with low antenatal care utilization. Conclusion: Low antenatal care utilization remains a significant public health problem among multiparous women in Mbuji-Mayi. Interventions should focus on improving women’s education, increasing awareness of recommended antenatal care visits, strengthening social support during pregnancy, and improving geographical access to maternal health services. Antenatal care low utilization multiparous women maternal health pregnancy access to health services Democratic Republic of the Congo Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-9393525","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":623933184,"identity":"e6450456-e8d2-4ded-b20b-c9b3d534376a","order_by":0,"name":"Alix NTAMBUA KAMINA","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Official University of Mbuji-Mayi","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Alix","middleName":"NTAMBUA","lastName":"KAMINA","suffix":""},{"id":623933188,"identity":"c8567350-c43f-4c4d-b481-e6050ab83a69","order_by":1,"name":"Josephine LUBUYA MUKUNA","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Official University of 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Democratic Republic of the Congo","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-9393525/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-9393525/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBackground:\u003c/strong\u003eAntenatal care is essential for preventing pregnancy complications and improving maternal and neonatal outcomes. However, low utilization of antenatal care services remains a major public health problem in many low- and middle-income countries, particularly among multiparous women who often perceive pregnancy as a routine event.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eObjective:\u003c/strong\u003eThis study aimed to determine the prevalence of low antenatal care utilization and identify associated factors among multiparous women in Mbuji-Mayi, Democratic Republic of the Congo.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eMethods:\u003c/strong\u003eA community-based cross-sectional study was conducted among multiparous women. Data were collected using structured questionnaires and analyzed using descriptive statistics and logistic regression. Odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals were calculated to assess associations between independent variables and low antenatal care utilization, and multivariate logistic regression was performed to identify factors independently associated with low antenatal care utilization.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eResults:\u003c/strong\u003e The prevalence of low antenatal care utilization was 33.6%. 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Interventions should focus on improving women’s education, increasing awareness of recommended antenatal care visits, strengthening social support during pregnancy, and improving geographical access to maternal health services.\u003c/p\u003e","manuscriptTitle":"Low antenatal care utilization among multiparous women in Mbuji-Mayi, Democratic Republic of the Congo: prevalence and associated factors","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2026-04-16 11:33:12","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-9393525/v1","editorialEvents":[{"type":"communityComments","content":0}],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"b11af732-0ef4-45cc-98a2-3ac6e9a55f8c","owner":[],"postedDate":"April 16th, 2026","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"posted","subjectAreas":[],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2026-04-16T20:39:33+00:00","versionOfRecord":[],"versionCreatedAt":"2026-04-16 11:33:12","video":"","vorDoi":"","vorDoiUrl":"","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-9393525","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-9393525","identity":"rs-9393525","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"XKTyCvWXoU3ODBz1xrDgd","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}