Assessment of Knowledge Regarding Antenatal Care among Men in Selected Rural Areas of Himachal Pradesh
Authors: - Dr. Rohit Nadda , - Dr. Banita Kumari 
Published: November 2023

Background: WHO defined health as the state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely an absence of disease or infirmity, but it includes ability to lead socially and economically productive life.1 Being a man or women has a significant impact on health, as a result of both biological as well as gender related differences.
Antenatal care (ANC) is most important aspect of women‘s reproductive health. The antenatal care is the care provided by skilled health care professionals to pregnant women and adolescent girls to ensure best health conditions for mother and baby during pregnancy. It reduces maternal and perinatal morbidity and mortality both directly, through detections and indirectly, through the identification of women and girls at increased risk of developing complications during labour, delivery and ensuring appropriate level of care.1 As per NFHS- 4, the 21% of pregnant women utilised full ANC, ranging from 2.3–65.9% across states. Overall, 51.6% had 4 or more ANC visits, 30.8% consumed IFA for at least 100 days and 91.1% had one or more doses of tetanus toxoid. Full ANC utilisation was inequitable across place of residence, caste, and maternal education. Registration of pregnancy, utilisation of government‘s Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) and health insurance coverage were associated with higher odds of full ANC utilisation. Lower maternal education, lower

wealth quintile, lack of father‘s participation during antenatal visits, higher birth order, teenage and unintended pregnancy were associated with lower odds of full ANC utilisation. This study assesses the knowledge about the antenatal care among married and unmarried men of 18-35 years age in selected rural areas of Himachal Pradesh.
Methods: The study was an unmatched case and control design where married men were considered as a case and unmarried men as comparator group. This study was a part of large study for which sample size of 268 men in each group was calculated assuming prevalence of female contraceptives 70% in unmarried men and 85% in married men. This was carried out by cluster-based sampling in villages of Nagrota Bagwan and Shahpur health blocks of DRPGMC Tanda at Kangra.
Results: The 93.3% participants among case group are aware of anaemia in pregnancy while only 64.9% among control group are aware of anaemia in pregnancy. The knowledge about all three causes of anaemia was statistically more in case group (61.9%) as compared to control group (38.8%). Assessment about high-risk pregnancy, about 72.4% participants among case group were aware about the risk factors in pregnancy as compared to 43.3% in control group with statistically significant differences (P=0.000). All the causes of high-risk pregnancy were reported by the participants of case group (44.0% vs 29.9%) with statistically significant differences.

Conclusions: Married men had significantly more knowledge about various components of antenatal care. The awareness approach for unmarried men needs to be designed regarding antenatal care.