title: Antenatal care in the capital city of Cambodia: current situation and impact on obstetric outcome.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To analyze the situation of antenatal care (ANC) attendance in the capital of Cambodia, Phnom Penh, and the effect of ANC attendance on delivery and newborn outcome, in order to establish a strategy for ANC in the national reproductive health program in Cambodia.
  
  
  METHODS
  This was a health facility-based retrospective cohort study. Background factors (education, household income, and parity) were obtained through interview, and obstetric information (cesarean section, low birth-weight, and maternal complications) were collected from the medical records of women who delivered during 1 month at all the public and private health facilities in Phnom Penh. Relations were analyzed between the number of ANC visits, background factors, and obstetric outcome.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 1204 responses were received from Phnom Penh residents, representing 84% of the estimated number of deliveries in the city. Of these, 89% were from public health facilities. Low educational level, low household income, and multiparity were risk factors for ANC attendance. There was no association between the number of ANC attendances and obstetric outcome.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our study has shown that Phnom Penh residents have good access to ANC and delivery care. Low socioeconomic factors are risk factors to ANC. The number of ANC visits had no association with poor perinatal outcome, but further study on quality of ANC and its impact on obstetric outcome is needed. Within the limited resources, safe motherhood strategies need to be targeted to the rural area and to the poor in order to increase access to ANC and delivery care.
authors.affiliation: Bureau of International Cooperation, International Medical Center of Japan, Tokyo, Japan. norikof@tkm.att.ne.jp
authors.forename: Noriko
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Fujita
authors.forename: Mitsuaki
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Matsui
authors.forename: Sopha
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Srey
authors.forename: Chin Samuth
authors.initials: CS
authors.lastname: Po
authors.forename: Sokhan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Uong
authors.forename: Kanal
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Koum
mesh_terms: D002160:Cambodia; D015331:Cohort Studies; D004522:Educational Status; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D010298:Parity; D011203:Poverty; D011247:Pregnancy; D011256:Pregnancy Outcome; D011295:Prenatal Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors