Who receives adequate antenatal care in Nigeria? Socioeconomic inequalities and women’s access to maternal healthcare

Antenatal care (ANC) utilization is an important indicator of women’s health equity and maternal healthcare access. We applied the Social Determinants of Health framework to examine socioeconomic and demographic factors associated with ANC utilization among women in Nigeria using data from the 2018 Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey (N = 21,792). Using survey-weighted logistic regression analyses, we found that women in the richest wealth quintile (aOR = 3.47, 95% CI: 2.77-4.34) and women with higher education (aOR = 4.20, 95% CI: 3.36-5.25) had significantly greater odds of completing at least four ANC visits. Employment status, age, religion, geopolitical region, and birth order were also significantly associated with ANC utilization. Our findings highlight how multiple dimensions of socioeconomic position shape women’s access to maternal healthcare and contribute to persistent inequalities in maternal health equity within resource-constrained settings.