Assessing the impact of Group ANC (GANC) on IPTp uptake in Benin

Objectives

The objectives of the study are:

(1) To assess whether GANC leads to improved uptake of IPTp; specifically, to assess whether the proportion of pregnant women receiving IPTp3+ is higher in the catchment areas of facilities implementing GANC as compared to the catchment areas of control facilities without GANC 18 months following the start of implementation; and

(2) To assess whether data collected from pregnant women at 1st ANC visit are representative of the population as a whole, measured by correlation between ANC data and data from the cross sectional household survey obtained at baseline and endline. The results will be used by the Ministries of Health (MOH) to decide: whether to expand the use of GANC as a strategy to improve quality of care and increase utilization of ANC; and whether pregnant women attending first ANC can be used as a sentinel population to improve surveillance of malaria control interventions.