The timing of antenatal care access for adolescent pregnancies in Cape Town, South Africa.

BACKGROUND:  Late antenatal care (ANC)-seeking among pregnant adolescents threatens their health outcomes, and the health outcomes of their new-borns. South Africa has experienced a rapid increase in adolescent pregnancies during the COVID-19 pandemic, adding to the existing concerns around adolescent pregnancy care-seeking behaviour. AIM:  The main aim of this study was to investigate the causes and covariates of late ANC access among adolescents in the Cape Town Metropole, South Africa. SETTING:  Three public healthcare facilities in the Cape Town Metropole, 2018-2019. METHODS:  A retrospective, cross-sectional study on ANC seeking behaviour was conducted, surveying 202 adolescents. Late attendance was defined as attending ≥ 3 months. For this study, adolescents were defined as women aged 16-18 years. The sample was restricted to adolescents who used public healthcare facilities or who did not attend at all. Data were analysed using univariate, bivariate and multivariate methods. RESULTS:  A total of 50.8% (n = 99/195) of the pregnant adolescents in the sample had their first ANC visit 3 months. 14.9% (n = 29/195) did not attend at all. Major contributors to delayed care-seeking include poor pregnancy identification (n = 45/99, 45.5%), and a lack of information about ANC. Age, education, and alcohol consumption were significant predictors of delayed care-seeking. CONCLUSION:  Delayed ANC attendance contributes to negative long-term health outcomes for pregnant adolescents and their new-borns. Improving access to pregnancy tests in the public sector could benefit adolescents with earlier pregnancy identification. Adolescents need to be made aware of their care seeking options.Contribution: There is evidence of long-term health impacts of late ANC attendance by pregnant adolescents, but there is an absence of evidence on the timing and barriers of late care-seeking behaviour. In this study, late ANC attendance among adolescents was associated with late pregnancy identification and poor knowledge of care options.

'The nurse did not even greet me': how informed versus non-informed patients evaluate health systems responsiveness in South Africa.

INTRODUCTION: Universal Health Coverage is not only about access to health services but also about access to high-quality care, since poor experiences may deter patients from accessing care. Evidence shows that quality of care drives health outcomes, yet little is known about non-clinical dimensions of care, and patients' experience thereof relative to satisfaction with visits. This paper investigates the role of non-clinical dimensions of care in patient satisfaction. METHODS: Our study describes the interactions of informed and non-informed patients with primary healthcare workers at 39 public healthcare facilities in two metropolitan centres in two South African provinces. Our analysis included 1357 interactions using standardised patients (for informed patients) and patients' exit interviews (for non-informed patients). The data were combined for three types of visits: contraception, hypertension and tuberculosis. We describe how satisfaction with care was related to patients' experiences of non-clinical dimensions. RESULTS: We show that when real patients (RPs) reported being satisfied (vs dissatisfied) with a visit, it was associated with a 30% increase in the probability that a patient is greeted at the facilities. Likewise, when the RPs reported being satisfied (vs dissatisfied) with the visit, it was correlated with a 15% increase in the prospect that patients are pleased with healthcare workers' explanations of health conditions. CONCLUSION: Informed patients are better equipped to assess health-systems responsiveness in healthcare provision. Insights into responsiveness could guide broader efforts aimed at targeted education and empowerment of primary healthcare users to strengthen health systems and shape expectations for appropriate care and conduct.

Use of simulated patients to assess hypertension case management at public healthcare facilities in South Africa.

OBJECTIVE: Our study aims to evaluate hypertensive case management in South Africa's public health sector using simulated patients. METHOD: Our study describes interactions between hypertensive simulated patients and primary healthcare workers at 39 public sector healthcare facilities in two metropolitan centres in the Eastern and Western Cape Provinces of South Africa. Our analysis focus on 97 interactions where our eight simulated patients tested within range for stage 1 hypertension, that is with SBP 140-159 mmHg and/or DBP 90-99 mmHg. For this subset, we describe how healthcare workers communicated the outcome of the blood pressure test, and whether they follow government guidelines on risk assessment and lifestyle advice. RESULTS: Healthcare workers highlighted the risks associated with hypertension in one out of three cases and stressed the importance of regular monitoring of blood pressure in less than half of cases. Hypertensive patients received advice on all six lifestyle risk factors in 8% of cases. 39% of patients received no lifestyle advice at all. In one out of four cases, hypertensive patients left the facility without a hypertension diagnosis and with no prospect of a follow-up visit. CONCLUSION: Simulated patients can assess the quality of hypertension case management, yielding granular and comprehensive information that can help mobilize resources to improve care. The management of hypertension patients in South African public healthcare facilities is critically insufficient. Given that hypertension is responsible for a rising share of deaths in South Africa and many of these deaths are preventable, urgent intervention is needed.

Demand-Side Causes and Covariates of Late Antenatal Care Access in Cape Town, South Africa.

Objectives The objective of this study was to investigate the causes and covariates of late antenatal care access in South Africa. Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted, interviewing 221 women at four public-sector labour wards in Cape Town, South Africa in 2014. A definition of late attendance as attending ≥ 5 months was used. Data were analysed using univariate, bivariate and multivariate methods. Results Of the women who attended antenatal care at a public-sector clinic (n = 213, 96.4%), more than half (51.2%) attended ≥ 3 months and < 5 months, and a quarter (26.3%) attended ≥ 5 months. For those attending ≥ 5 months, 51.8% cited late recognition of pregnancy as the major reason for delayed attendance. Supply-side barriers were not identified as large contributing factors to delayed attendance. Late antenatal care access was predominantly associated with demand-side factors. Women who accessed antenatal care ≥ 5 months were more likely to be in the poorest 40% of the wealth-index distribution (p = 0.034) and to not have completed high school (p = 0.006). They were also more likely to report alcohol consumption during pregnancy (p = 0.020) and be multiparous (p = 0.035). Having completed high school was protective of late antenatal care access in stepwise logistic regression analysis (OR 0.403, CI 0.210-0.773, p < 0.01). For women who attended ≥ 3 months, late access was associated with unwanted pregnancy (p = 0.030). Conclusions for Practice Improved access to pregnancy tests could assist in earlier pregnancy identification. Interventions to increase awareness of the importance of early antenatal care attendance among vulnerable women may help.

A comparable yardstick: adjusting for education bias in South African health system responsiveness ratings.

Health-system responsiveness (HSR) measures the experience of health-system users in terms of the non-clinical aspects of the health system. This has been operationalized as a measurable construct in multiple surveys and studies. According to the literature, reporting behaviour may vary systematically across socio-demographic characteristics. In this study we explore the association between education levels and reporting behaviour in terms of HSR in South Africa using data from the World Health Organization Study on Global Ageing and Adult Health for South Africa (WHO SAGE) conducted in 2007 and 2008. We consider the reporting behaviour of 1499 adults aged 50 and older in terms of the reported HSR for their most recent outpatient provider visit during the preceding 12 months. More specifically, we explore whether there are systematic biases in reporting behaviour by education levels and other socio-economic covariates through the use of data from anchoring vignettes. These are questions depicting hypothetical HSR scenarios which provide a fixed benchmark for comparing individuals' own HSR ratings and identifying potential reporting biases. Using a hierarchical-ordered probit model in regression analysis, we found large differences in HSR ratings between the lowest and highest education groups after adjusting for reporting bias using the anchoring vignettes. This finding holds across all seven HSR domains captured in the WHO SAGE dataset. In the most extreme case, individuals with no education are likely to underreport poor HSR by between 2.6 and 9.4% percentage points compared with individuals with secondary schooling or higher. Policy-makers need to take cognizance of potential reporting biases in HSR ratings and make the necessary adjustments to obtain data that are as true and accurate as possible. The need for this is especially acute in a country such as South Africa with large socio-economic inequalities and disparities in access to healthcare.