Baseline characteristics in intervention and comparison areas (in per cent) for most recent births to women aged 15–49 years in the 5 years preceding the survey based on DHS data
| Intervention area (n=533) | Comparison area (n=347) | χ2 | p Value | ||
| Family characteristics | |||||
| Location | Rural | 86.0 | 85.6 | 0.02 | 0.929 |
| Wealth index | Poorer* | 31.4 | 51.7 | 44.09 | 0.003 |
| Caste and ethnicity | Disadvantaged† | 74.0 | 70.6 | 1.05 | 0.673 |
| Maternal characteristics | |||||
| Education | No education‡ | 36.5 | 45.0 | 24.82 | 0.072 |
| Age at delivery | Higher risk age group§ | 31.9 | 23.0 | 6.92 | 0.022 |
| Access to media | No¶ | 51.4 | 65.4 | 14.34 | 0.101 |
| Child characteristics | |||||
| Sex | Female | 45.7 | 49.0 | 1.98 | 0.187 |
| Parity | Higher risk parity** | 56.5 | 51.1 | 2.12 | 0.211 |
| Essential practices to improve neonatal health | |||||
| Birth preparedness | Better practices†† | 6.2 | 4.9 | 0.63 | 0.568 |
| Antenatal care seeking | Better practices‡‡ | 33.7 | 26.4 | 4.39 | 0.218 |
| Antenatal care quality | Better practices§§ | 36.0 | 29.0 | 3.87 | 0.195 |
| Delivery by skilled birth attendant | Yes¶¶ | 46.7 | 31.2 | 17.61 | 0.007 |
| Immediate newborn care | Better practices*** | 74.4 | 64.3 | 8.63 | 0.091 |
| Postnatal care within 48 hours | Yes††† | 33.7 | 26.8 | 3.97 | 0.097 |
*Poorer: includes poorer and poorest quintiles, that is, lowest 40% in wealth ranking based on selected household assets.
†Disadvantaged caste and ethnicity: includes hill dalit, terai dalit, hill janajati, terai janajati, other terai caste and Muslim.
‡No education: includes illiterates and those without any formal education but may have some literacy classes.
§Higher risk group: those who delivered before 20 years or after 35 years.
¶No access to media: those reporting not listening or watching any public health radio or television programme in the last month.
**Higher risk parity: first or more than third parity.
††Birth preparedness: combined variable including saving money, organising transportation, finding a blood donor, identifying a health worker to assist with the delivery and purchasing a safe delivery kit; coded as ‘better practices’ if at least two items are fulfilled.
‡‡Antenatal care seeking: combined variable comprising number of antenatal visits (four or more), taking iron supplements (>90 tablets) and having been vaccinated against tetanus (at least two doses); coded as ‘better practices’ if all items are fulfilled.
§§Antenatal care quality: combined variable comprising whether the woman had her blood pressure taken, a urine and/or blood sample collected, and was told about pregnancy complications and where to go in case of complications; coded as ‘better practices’ if at least four items are fulfilled.
¶¶Delivery by skilled birth attendant: defined as delivery by a doctor, nurse or midwife at home or at a health institution.
***Immediate newborn care: combined variable comprising delayed bathing for 24 hours, drying, wrapping, placing the baby on the mother’s breast or belly, applying chlorhexidine or nothing on the umbilical cord, and initiation of breastfeeding within 1 hour of birth; coded as ‘better practices’ if at least three items are fulfilled.
†††Postnatal care within 48 hours: defined as any newborn examination by a health worker or female community health volunteer within 48 hours of birth.
DHS, Demographic and Health Survey.