TY - JOUR AU - Magwaja, Elia AU - Minja, Jacqueline AU - Budeba, Majige Selemani AU - Akarro, Rocky R.J. PY - 2021/05/31 Y2 - 2024/03/29 TI - Investigation of some factors associated with utilization of maternal health care services by adolescent mothers in Tanzania JF - Tanzania Journal of Science JA - Tanz. J. Sci. VL - 47 IS - 2 SE - Articles DO - 10.4314/tjs.v47i2.39 UR - https://tjs.udsm.ac.tz/index.php/tjs/article/view/721 SP - 847-861 AB - <p>This study examined some factors associated with the utilization of maternal health care services<br>by adolescent mothers (15-19 years) in Tanzania in order to provide advice accordingly. The study<br>used cross-sectional study of adolescent mothers aged 15-19 years using Demographic Health<br>Survey and Malaria indicator Survey 2015/16 data. The dependent variables were number of<br>antenatal care visits, the place where an adolescent mother delivered and post-natal checkup<br>(adolescent mother’s health checking after being discharged or after a home delivery). The<br>independent variables were birth order, education level of a mother, marital status of a mother,<br>media exposure, wealth index, distance to health facility. Multiple binary logistic regression was<br>used to examine an association between each dependent variable and their respective independent<br>variables. Data was analyzed using IBM SPSS statistics and STATA. This study used 550<br>adolescent mothers in the analysis. Majority of the adolescent mothers had less than four Antenatal<br>Care (ANC) visits (53.5%), while 68.5% of adolescent mothers delivered at a health facility.<br>Adolescent mothers with two or more children had less odds of having at least four ANCs<br>compared to those with one child, whereas adolescent mothers with at least secondary education<br>had greater odds of delivering at a health facility compared to those who had no education.<br>Adolescent mothers who had at least four antenatal care visits and those who are married had<br>greater odds of checking their health after being discharged compared to adolescent mothers who<br>had less than 4 ANCs and single adolescent mothers. It was advised that provision of maternal<br>education to young girls on the importance of safe delivery and health checking after delivery is<br>very important to reduce adolescent maternal morbidity and mortality in the country.</p><p><strong>Keywords</strong>: Adolescent; Maternal Health; Logistic regression; Chi-square.</p> ER -