Table 2.
Distribution of pregnancies by socioeconomic position, seven trials, all intervention years combined
| Trial | Mumbai, urban India trial | 1st Bangladesh trial¶ | 2nd Bangladesh trial¶ | Rural India trial | Nepal-Makwanpur trial | Nepal-Dhanusha trial | Malawi trial | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Trial location (implementing organisation) | Slum areas in Mumbai, India (SNEHA) | 3 districts in rural Bangladesh (PCP) | Jharkhand and Odisha state (Ekjut) | Rural Nepal, Makwanpur district (MIRA) | Rural Nepal, Dhanusha district (MIRA) | Rural Malawi, Mchinji district (MaiMwana) | ||||||||
| n | Per cent | n | Per cent | n | Per cent | n | Per cent | n | Per cent | n | Per cent | n | Per cent | |
| Total | 5996 | 100 | 15 537 | 100 | 11 064 | 100 | 9594 | 100 | 2969 | 100 | 13 904 | 100 | 11 510 | 100 |
| Maternal education*, years schooling | ||||||||||||||
| Never went to school | 1457 | 24 | 5018 | 32 | 2220 | 20 | 7186 | 75 | 2209 | 75 | 10 339 | 75 | 2115 | 19 |
| 1–4 | 323 | 5 | 5420 | 35 | 4149 | 38 | 500 | 5 | 307 | 10 | 1636 | 12 | 3920 | 34 |
| 5–10 | 3601 | 60 | 4653 | 30 | 4361 | 39 | 1741 | 18 | 447 | 15 | 1056 | 8 | 5014 | 44 |
| 11+† | 615 | 10 | 446 | 3 | 334 | 3 | 167 | 2 | – | – | 773 | 6 | 315 | 3 |
| Household economic status‡ | ||||||||||||||
| Poorest | 1235 | 21 | 7626 | 49 | 2556 | 23 | 2286 | 24 | 1513 | 51 | 3128 | 23 | 2978 | 26 |
| Next-poor | 1175 | 20 | 2079 | 13 | 2398 | 22 | 4508 | 47 | 929 | 31 | 2800 | 20 | 1171 | 10 |
| Middle§ | 1312 | 22 | 2056 | 13 | 2052 | 19 | 1174 | 12 | – | – | 2744 | 20 | 2428 | 21 |
| Next rich | 1242 | 21 | 1969 | 13 | 2346 | 21 | 880 | 9 | 265 | 9 | 2473 | 18 | 4423 | 39 |
| Rich | 1032 | 17 | 1807 | 12 | 1711 | 15 | 746 | 8 | 246 | 8 | 2753 | 20 | 483 | 4 |
| Maternal age, years | ||||||||||||||
| <20 | 492 | 8 | 2704 | 17 | 1862 | 17 | 1110 | 12 | 186 | 6 | 3115 | 22 | 1474 | 13 |
| 20–24 | 2792 | 47 | 5778 | 37 | 4131 | 37 | 3037 | 34 | 1061 | 36 | 5396 | 39 | 3667 | 32 |
| 25–29 | 1942 | 32 | 4167 | 27 | 2987 | 27 | 2683 | 30 | 802 | 27 | 3657 | 26 | 2716 | 24 |
| 30–34 | 595 | 10 | 1833 | 12 | 1464 | 13 | 1429 | 16 | 471 | 16 | 1192 | 9 | 1913 | 17 |
| 35+ | 169 | 3 | 1035 | 7 | 618 | 6 | 717 | 8 | 443 | 15 | 544 | 4 | 1613 | 14 |
| Gravidity | ||||||||||||||
| First pregnancy | 1935 | 32 | 5280 | 34 | 3543 | 32 | 2556 | 27 | 408 | 14 | 4489 | 32 | 2001 | 18 |
| Not first pregnancy | 4061 | 68 | 10 257 | 66 | 7519 | 68 | 7030 | 73 | 2557 | 86 | 9415 | 68 | 9334 | 82 |
The percentage of respondents with missing values for the variables of interest was very low, between 0 and 2% in each of the sites, with the exception of 6% missing values for maternal age in the rural India trial and 14% missing values for attendance in the Malawi trial.
*Data on maternal education were available by level and number of years of education for all trials except the one in rural India and the first Bangladesh trial. Categories were constructed such that they were as similar as possible across the sites: no education; 1–4 years of education (1–3 years for rural India and 1–5 for Bangladesh); 5–10 years of education (4–10 for rural India, 6–10 for Bangladesh); 11+ years of education.
†For Nepal-Makwanpur, there were only seven women with 11+ years of schooling. These were merged with the 5–10 years of schooling category.
‡We made as equally sized wealth groups (quintiles) in each site as possible, but in some sites there remained considerable population heaping in some wealth categories.
§For Nepal-Makwanpur, the questionnaire included four predefined asset levels; the middle category was therefore excluded.
¶The first and second Bangladesh trial were conducted in the same study areas. The second trial was set up to test the hypothesis that the lack of intervention effect in the first trial was due to the very low coverage of the intervention in the study population.
MIRA, Mother and Infant Research Activities; NA, not applicable; PCP, Perinatal Care Project; SNEHA, Society for Nutrition, Education and Health Action.