{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,15]],"date-time":"2026-05-15T18:09:11Z","timestamp":1778868551523,"version":"3.51.4"},"reference-count":52,"publisher":"Public Library of Science (PLoS)","issue":"5","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,15]],"date-time":"2026-05-15T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1778803200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["www.plosone.org"],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["PLoS One"],"abstract":"<jats:sec id=\"sec001\">\n                    <jats:title>Background<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>Despite high antenatal care contact coverage in Lesotho, the content and quality of care remains suboptimal. This study assessed the level and determinants of content-qualified antenatal care coverage using the 2023\u20132024 Lesotho Demographic and Health Survey.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec id=\"sec002\">\n                    <jats:title>Methods<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>Data were analyzed from 1,112 women aged 15\u201349 who had a live birth or stillbirth in the 2 years preceding the survey. Content-qualified antenatal care was constructed as a composite score (0\u201316) incorporating the timing of initiation, number of contacts, attendance of skilled providers, and receipt of 10 key content components. The score was categorized into ordered tertiles (low: 0\u201312, moderate: 13, high: 14\u201316). Survey-weighted ordinal logistic regression was used to identify factors associated with receiving higher content-qualified antenatal care.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec id=\"sec003\">\n                    <jats:title>Results<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>Overall, 28.1% of women had low, 32.4% moderate, and 39.5% high content-qualified antenatal care scores. Higher coverage was significantly associated with being married or living with a partner (AOR\u2009=\u20091.78, 95% CI: 1.12\u20132.83), having secondary (AOR\u2009=\u20092.05, 95% CI: 1.34\u20133.14) and higher education (AOR\u2009=\u20091.90, 95% CI: 1.21\u20132.98), using the internet at least once per week (AOR\u2009=\u20091.61, 95% CI: 1.08\u20132.40), wanted pregnancy (AOR\u2009=\u20092.87, 95% CI: 1.65\u20135.01), a smaller household (AOR\u2009=\u20091.36, 95% CI: 1.05\u20131.76), and higher community education (AOR\u2009=\u20091.38, 95% CI: 1.09\u20131.75).<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec id=\"sec004\">\n                    <jats:title>Conclusion<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>Although antenatal care contact coverage is high in Lesotho, content-qualified coverage remains low and inequitable. Targeted interventions to improve maternal and community education, internet access, and pregnancy planning are essential to close the quality-coverage gap.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.1371\/journal.pone.0348679","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,15]],"date-time":"2026-05-15T17:21:43Z","timestamp":1778865703000},"page":"e0348679","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1371\/journal.pone.corrections_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Content-qualified antenatal care coverage in Lesotho: An ordinal logistic regression analysis of the 2023\u20132024 demographic and health survey"],"prefix":"10.1371","volume":"21","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-2769-0385","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Kindu Yinges","family":"Wondie","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Nuhamin Tesfa","family":"Tsega","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Tazeb Alemu","family":"Anteneh","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Alemneh Tadesse","family":"Kassie","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Berihun Agegn","family":"Mengistie","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-2108-6961","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Endalk Birrie","family":"Wondifraw","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Getie Mihret","family":"Aragaw","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"340","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,15]]},"reference":[{"key":"pone.0348679.ref001","volume-title":"Trends in maternal mortality 2000 to 2023: estimates by WHO, UNICEF, UNFPA, World Bank Group and UNDESA\/Population Division [Internet]","author":"World Health Organization","year":"2025"},{"key":"pone.0348679.ref002","volume-title":"A neglected tragedy: the global burden of stillbirths [Internet]","author":"United Nations Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation","year":"2020"},{"key":"pone.0348679.ref003","volume-title":"Lesotho takes a major step towards ending preventable maternal and newborn deaths [Internet]","author":"World Health Organization Regional Office for Africa","year":"2025"},{"key":"pone.0348679.ref004","volume-title":"Lesotho demographic and health survey 2023\u201324: final report [Internet]","author":"Ministry of Health [Lesotho], ICF","year":"2024"},{"key":"pone.0348679.ref005","volume-title":"Addressing high maternal mortality and newborn deaths in Lesotho [Internet]","author":"World Health Organization Regional Office for Africa","year":"2023"},{"key":"pone.0348679.ref006","volume-title":"WHO recommendations on antenatal care for a positive pregnancy experience [Internet]","author":"World Health Organization","year":"2016"},{"issue":"8","key":"pone.0348679.ref007","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1045","DOI":"10.1111\/1471-0528.13451","article-title":"Quality of care for pregnant women and newborns-the WHO vision","volume":"122","author":"\u04e6. 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