Prevalence and factors associated with short interpregnancy intervals among women attending antenatal care at selected hospitals in Lusaka, Zambia.

The Interpregnancy Interval (IPI’s) is defined as the spacing between a live birth and the beginning of the following pregnancy according to the world health organization. Research evidence has shown that short IPI’s are associated with adverse pregnancy outcomes. Despite there being enough information on electronic and print media in both rural and urban areas on the importance of child spacing, women continue to conceive at intervals which are not recommended, thereby putting their lives and the lives of their unborn children at risk. This study was aimed at determining the magnitude of this problem and further investigated the demographic, sociocultural and health care related factors associated with it .This was a cross sectional study involving 218 women aged between 15 and 49 years attending antenatal clinics at selected hospitals. Eligible participants were recruited using systematic random sampling method and a structured interviewer administered questionnaire was used to collect the data which was later processed using Epi-Data and exported to STATA for analysis. The results of this study revealed that the prevalence of short IPI’s was 33.4%. Among the factors associated with short IPI’s, it was noted that women aged 35 years or older were 61% (aOR=0.39;95% CI:0.21-0.98) less likely to have short IPI’s compared to those aged less than 25 years. Furthermore, women from Matero hospital had 4.89 (95% CI; 2.59-11.6) times higher odds of short IPI’s than women from Chawama hospital. In addition, women who reported having discussed the pregnancy with their partners were 59% (aOR=0.41; 95% CI; 0.31-0.96) less likely to have short IPI’s compared to those who did not discuss. For those women who indicated that they did not receive information about recommended IPI’s from health care workers, their odds of short IPI’s were 4.47% (95% CI; 1.57-12.6) times higher than those who received the information. Therefore, based on the above findings, raising awareness among women on the recommended birth intervals and encouraging partner participation on when to have the next child may help in efforts to avert the problem of short IPI’s and its effect on maternal and perinatal outcomes.