Table 1 Circumstance variables considered for this study

Region

There are 12: the 10 regions (or areas of study) plus the cities of Yaoundé and Douala previously excluded from the Center and Littoral regions, respectively

Place of residence

These are urban and rural areas. Each enumeration area has a rural part and an urban part

Woman’s age

It ranges between 15 and 49 years old; it is an indicator of the level of risk of pregnancy. These ages are grouped into seven classes: 15–19, 20–24, 25–29, 30–34, 35–39, 40–44, 45–49

Religion

A distinction is made between Catholics, Protestants, other Christians, Muslims, animists and those who have no defined belief. The first three modalities will be grouped together to form the Christian modality

Household wealth

We distinguish the modalities Very poor, Poor, average, rich and very rich

Woman’s education

It takes the modalities: No level, Primary, Secondary, Higher

Parity

May help to suspect a possible link between family planning problems and access to health care during pregnancy. Four classes are made up: the primiparous class (1 child), the pauciparous class (2–3), the multiparous class (4–5) and the large multiparous class (more than 6 children)

Partner’s education

It takes the modalities: No level, Primary, Secondary, Higher

Household head gender

It permits to handle who takes the decisions in the household. It takes two values: male and female

Partner’s age

It ranges between 15 and 64 years old; it is an indicator of the level of risk of pregnancy. These ages are grouped into five classes: 15–24, 25–34, 35–44, 45–54, 55–64

Distance to health facility

It was asked to pregnant women if distance to health facility constitutes a big problem. It takes two modalities: big problem, not a big problem

Enumeration area

The variable characterizing clusters in the study sample