Factors Influencing Male Involvement in Antenatal Care in Shai Osudoku District of the Greater Accra Region, Ghana

Abstract

In spite of numerous interventions to improve male involvement in antenatal care, male involvement is still low in Ghana. At the same time, little research has focused on the factors that influence male involvement in antenatal care. This study therefore sought to examine the factors that influence male involvement in antenatal care using the Shai Osudoku as a case study. A total of 302 men, aged 20 and 60 years, who have children aged 5years or below at their last birthday were randomly sampled and interviewed. The data was collected using structured interviewer administered questionnaires. Data collected were entered into excel spreadsheet and analysed using Stata version 15. Descriptive statistical analysis was used to assess the level of men‟s involvement in antenatal care in Shai Osudoku while bivariate and logistic regression analyses were used to examine factors affecting men‟s involvement in antenatal care. Results suggest that about 60.3% of the respondent were highly involved in their partner‟s ANC. After controlling for other variables, four factors significantly predicted greater male involvement in their spouse/partner‟s ANC activities. These included respondent‟s monthly income (AOR: 0.193; CI: 0.036-1.019; P-value: 0.053), whether a respondent reports that the attitude of health workers discourages him from being involved (AOD: 4.011; CI: 1.483-10.84; P-value:0.006), whether a man thinks his community accepts male involvement in ANC activities (AOD: 0.033; CI: 0.003-0.391; P-value: 0.007) and respondent‟s level of education; primary (AOR: 28.345; CI: 1.550-518.4; P-value: 0.024), JHS (AOR: 31.882; CI: 2.334-435.5; P-value: 0.009) and SHS or above (AOR: 9.296; CI: 0.717-120.5; P-value: 0.088). In conclusion, while male involvement in ANC in the district is encouraging, it is important for the health directorate in collaboration with appropriate institutions to promote male involvement through public education to sustain and improve upon the positive trend.