Low effective coverage of family planning and antenatal care services in Ethiopia

Objective: To assess the quality and effective coverage (EC) of family planning (FP) and antenatal care (ANC) services in Ethiopia. Design: Secondary analyses of the 2014 Ethiopia Service Provision Assessment Plus Survey and 2016 Ethiopia Demographic and Health Survey data. Setting and Participants: Women using FP and ANC. Main Outcome Measures: Quality indices are created as a proportion of recommended clinical actions done in observations of ANC and FP visits. We adjust the crude coverage of ANC and of FP by the quality to estimate EC for both services. Results: The crude coverage of FP was 61% and 62% for ANC in Ethiopia in 2016. On average, quality was 35.8% during FP visits and 86% of women received <50% of the recommended clinical actions. When adjusting the crude coverage to account for the quality of service, Ethiopia’s FP services EC was 22%. On average, ANC quality was 34% and 81% received <50% of the recommended ANC clinical actions. When adjusting the crude coverage by the service quality, the mean EC of ANC services was 22% in Ethiopia. Conclusions: The quality of both FP and ANC services is low in Ethiopia, with women obtaining only a fraction of the standard clinical actions during their visits. In addition, there is considerable variation in EC across Ethiopia’s regions, with variation driven largely by variations in crude coverage. To improve EC, actions are needed to improve the quality of ANC and FP care.