Strategies to Improve Child Immunization via Antenatal Care Visits in India: A Propensity Score Matching Analysis

This paper aims to examine the net impact of ANC visits on subsequent utilization of child immunization after removing the presence of selection bias using NFHS 2005-06 data. We have used propensity score matching method with a counterfactual model. Using matched sample analysis result shows that child immunization among the groups of women who have completed 1-2 ANC visits and 3+ visits was about 13 percent and 19 percent respectively, higher than the group of women who have not made any ANC visit. Findings of nearest neighbor matching with replacement method, indicate, selection bias present in data set leads to overestimates positive effects of ANC visits. Mantel-Haenszel bounds method suggest that if around 19 percent bias would be involved in the result then also we could observe true positive effect of 1-2 ANC visits on child immunization. It indicates that antenatal clinics are the conventional platforms for educating pregnant women on the benefits of immunization.