Inequity in antenatal care quality in Zimbabwe: The role of women’s empowerment

Figures & data

Table 1. Descriptive statistics.

	2010/11 DHS	2015 DHS
Variable	(N = 5563)	(N = 6133)
Age
Mean (SD)	27.53 (6.32)	28.56 (6.58)
Age at first union
Mean (SD)	18.91 (3.62)	19.05 (3.63)
Parity
Mean (SD)	2.81 (1.75)	2.96 (1.73)
Location
Rural	3952 (71.0%)	3816 (62.2%)
Urban	1611 (29.0%)	2316 (37.8%)
Educational level
Pre-primary or none	100 (1.8%)	63 (1.0%)
Primary	1841 (33.1%)	1806 (29.5%)
Secondary	3471 (62.4%)	3901 (63.6%)
Higher	151 (2.7%)	362 (5.9%)
Marital status
Never married	274 (4.9%)	318 (5.2%)
Currently married	4711 (84.7%)	5208 (84.9%)
Formerly married	578 (10.4%)	606 (9.9%)
Health insurance
No	5287 (95.0%)	5553 (90.6%)
Yes	276 (5.0%)	579 (9.4%)
Antenatal care visits
< 4	1478 (34.1%)	1137 (23.6%)
> = 4	2858 (65.9%)	3686 (76.4%)
Blood pressure test
No	451 (11.3%)	132 (2.9%)
Yes	3548 (88.7%)	4438 (97.1%)
Urine sample test
No	1627 (40.7%)	1417 (31.0%)
Yes	2372 (59.3%)	3153 (69.0%)
Blood sample test
No	626 (15.7%)	77 (1.7%)
Yes	3373 (84.3%)	4493 (98.3%)
Tetanus injections
No	2286 (53.0%)	2773 (58.4%)
Yes	2028 (47.0%)	1976 (41.6%)
Iron tablets/syrup
No	2114 (48.4%)	773 (16.0%)
Yes	2251 (51.6%)	4058 (84.0%)
Antenatal care quality
Mean (SD)	3.385 (1.197)	3.967 (0.847)

Figure 1. Antenatal care quality by wealth index.

Figure 2. Women’s empowerment in Zimbabwe.

Figure 3. Women’s empowerment and antenatal care quality.

Table 2. Concentration indices for antenatal quality in Zimbabwe.

	2010/11 DHS	2015 DHS
Blood pressure test	0.109***	0.035***
	(0.016)	(0.008)
Urine sample test	0.227***	0.248***
	(0.020)	(0.021)
Blood sample test	0.129***	0.023**
	(0.020)	(0.006)
Tetanus injection	0.046**	−0.056**
	(0.017)	(0.022)
Iron tablets	0.084***	0.009
	(0.021)	(0.019)
Overall quality	0.041***	0.011***
	(0.005)	(0.003)

Robust standard errors in parentheses

*** p < 0.01, ** p < 0.05, * p < 0.1

Note: A positive value indicates the affluent benefit more from the antenatal care quality than the poor – the distribution of antenatal care quality is pro-rich.

Table 3. Shapley decomposition of inequality in antenatal care quality.

Variables	2010/11 DHS		2015 DHS
	Value	Contribution (%)	Value	Contribution (%)
Parity	0.000	0.79%	0.001	3.55%
Insurance	0.003	10.05%	0.002	14.11%
Birth interval	0.004	13.28%	0.003	17.22%
Urban	0.009	30.32%	0.001	5.78%
Distance	0.003	11.22%	0.003	17.92%
Empowerment	0.010	34.35%	0.010	41.42%
Total	0.030	100%	0.017	100%

Table

Residence	blood pressure test		urine sample test		blood sample test		tetanus injection		Iron tablets
	2010/11	2015	2010/11	2015	2010/11	2015	2010/11	2015	2010/11	2015
Urban	0.947	0.984	0.709	0.798	0.906	0.988	0.446	0.384	0.545	0.845
Rural	0.861	0.963	0.542	0.618	0.816	0.980	0.481	0.437	0.503	0.837
Total	0.887	0.971	0.593	0.690	0.843	0.983	0.470	0.416	0.516	0.840

Standard errors in parentheses

*** p < 0.01, ** p < 0.05, * p < 0.1

Table

	(1)	(2)
Overall ANC quality	2010/11	2015
Parity	0.003	−0.009
	(0.017)	(0.012)
Insurance	0.170	0.088
	(0.106)	(0.057)
Birth interval	0.002**	0.001**
	(0.001)	(0.001)
Urban	0.200***	−0.015
	(0.064)	(0.040)
Distance	−0.078	−0.086**
	(0.057)	(0.038)
Empowerment	0.094***	0.063***
	(0.025)	(0.017)
Constant	3.207***	3.933***
	(0.086)	(0.057)
Observations	2,171	2,754
R-squared	0.030	0.017

Standard errors in parentheses

*** p < 0.01, ** p < 0.05, * p < 0.1

Table

Domain	Unit
Attitude to violence domain
1. Beating justified if wife goes out without telling husband	Yes = −1; Don’t know = 0; No = 1
2. Beating justified if wife neglects the children	Yes = −1; Don’t know = 0; No = 1
3. Beating justified if wife argues with husband	Yes = −1; Don’t know = 0; No = 1
4. Beating justified if wife refuses to have sex with husband	Yes = −1; Don’t know = 0; No = 1
5. Beating justified if wife burns the food	Yes = −1; Don’t know = 0; No = 1
Social independence domain:
6. Frequency of reading newspaper or magazine	Not at all = 0; <once a week = 1; ≥once a week = 2
7. Woman education in completed years of schooling	Years
8. Age of woman at first birth	Years
9. Age at first cohabitation	Years
10. Age difference: woman’s minus husband’s age	Years
11. Education difference: woman’s minus husband’s years of schooling	Years
Decision-making domain:
12. Who usually decides on respondent’s health care	Husband or other alone = −1; Joint decision or respondent alone = 1
13. Who usually decides on large household purchases	Husband or other alone = −1; Joint decision or re – spondent alone = 1
14. Who usually decides on visits to family or relatives	Husband or other alone = −1; Joint decision or respondent alone = 1
X. Respondent worked in last 12 months	No = 0; In the past year = 1; Have a job, but on leave last 7 d = 2; Currently working = 2

Data availability

The DHS data used for analysis is publicly available at https://dhsprogram.com/data/available-datasets.cfm.