Mobile Phone Ownership and Utilization of Quality ANC Services in Nepal

Abstract

This study explores the link between the mobile phone ownership and the utilization of quality Antenatal Care (ANC) services in Nepal with reference to the cross-sectional data from the nationally representative Nepal Demographic and Health Survey 2022. To substantiate it, this study also uses auto-ethnographic reflections. In total 1878 currently married women who gave birth within two years preceding the survey has been used for this study. To analyze the impact of the mobile phone ownership on utilization of ANC, this study has used a binary logistic regression model. The findings shows having a mobile phone not only helps to connect people but also influence the number of ANC visits with skilled provider (AOR=2.36) and the timing of the first visit (AOR=1.56). Nevertheless, the importance of improving the content of ANC services had a lesser effect despite having mobile ownership. This shows there is still gap in providing comprehensive ANC services despite the Government of Nepal claims of wide spread availability of these services.