Determinants of Continuum of Care: Evidence from the Conditional Cash Transfer Program of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Pakistan

Abstract

n the province of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (K.P.), maternal and neonatal mortality is alarmingly high. To cope with MNCH challenges,cost-effective and low technology intervention like Continuum of Care(CoC) is required. This study examines ANC visits, delivery assisted by SBA, and PNC to determine CoC for maternal health care (MHC) services in K.P. In doing so, the study analysed primary data from 806reproductive-age women (15-49) who gave birth in the previous twoyears. The data has been collected from randomly selected five districts of K.P. namely Peshawar, Swabi, Nowshera, Kohat, and Malakand.Personal, family, reproductive, and community factors are categorized as Predisposing, enabling and perceived need factors. First, bivariateanalysis was done to see how these factors associated with ANC, SBA,and PNC visits. Multivariate analysis using the Logit and Probit models has been done to assess results consistency. Multivariate study showed that women's age at first birth, total number of children, years of schooling,husband education, place of residence, health service provider, birth interval, and enrollment in conditional cash transfer (CCT) program were significantly associated with CoC from ANC to skilled assisted delivery and PNC. The results indicate lack of CoC among women in the study area.