Ethnic Disparities in Prenatal Care Utilization in Vietnam

Prenatal care is credited with reducing neonatal, perinatal, and maternal mortality and morbidity. The main purpose of the thesis is to examine the ethnic disparities between majority and ethnic minority women in prenatal care usage. The thesis also analyzes the effects of age, education attainment, female employment, and region on prenatal care utilization in Vietnam. I employ the Demographic and Health Survey 2002 in Vietnam. Descriptive statistic and logistic regression are the two statistical tests employed in this research. Results exhibit evidence of ethnic disparities in type of prenatal care utilization. Although ethnic minority women are likely to enter prenatal checkups at the same time as ethnic majority women, they are less likely to receive three or more prenatal checkups. Ethnic minority women are also less likely to receive prenatal checkups from professionals. When giving birth, minority women are less likely to deliver with a professional birth attendant, in a hospital or health facility. When controlling for other independent variables, education attainment and region show significant effects on prenatal care usage. Uneducated women, or women with less than secondary education, and women residing outside the Red River Delta consumed less professional prenatal care usage