Prevalence of male attendance and associated factors at their partners antenatal visits among antenatal care attendees in Bale Zone, South East Ethiopia

Male involvement in antenatal care helps to have safe delivery, especially in developing countries. The problem has been insufficiently studied in Ethiopia. Therefore, this study assessed male attendance and associated factors at their partners’ antenatal visits among antenatal care attendees in Bale Zone health facilities. Cross sectional study was conducted from May to June, 2017 among 609 pregnant mothers. Simple random sampling was used to select participants. Interviewer administered questionnaire was used to collect data. Data was entered into Epi-data version 3.1 and analyzed using statistical package for social sciences (SPSS version 21). Variables with p-values <0.05 were considered to declare statistical significance in multivariable logistic regression analysis. Male attendance at their partners’ antenatal visits was 41.4%. Having primary level of education (AOR=2.15, CI=1.12, 4.11), age ≥ 35 years (AOR=0.3, CI=0.1, 0.87), being farmer (AOR=0.23, CI=0.11, 0.51), having previous antenatal care visit (AOR=0.49, CI=0.26, 0.92) were factors associated with male partner involvement. Male attendance at their partners’ antenatal visits was low. Hence, health providers and other stakeholders shall create awareness and implement strategies to boost male partners’ involvement in antenatal care visit. Key words:  Antenatal visits, Bale-Zone.