Table 2

Women’s background characteristics by study period

	Period 1 (Pre-voucher/roll-out period) n=1888			Period 2 (Full voucher implementation) n=2198			Period 3 (Free maternity services introduced) n=1237
	Comparison counties	Voucher counties	P values	Comparison counties	Voucher counties	P values	Comparison counties	Voucher counties	P values
Age group (years) (%)			P=0.002			P=0.079			P=0.018
15–24	23.1	32.3		32.5	38.8		32.8	39.5
25–34	50.6	48.9		49.3	46.2		50.1	45.1
35+	26.3	18.9		18.3	15.0		17.1	15.6
Educational attainment (%)			P=0.021			P=0.351			P=0.382
Below primary	26.2	32.2		28.1	32.6		24.3	27.6
Completed primary	58.1	55.3		53.6	51.2		51.5	47.4
Completed secondary/higher	19.7	12.5		18.3	16.2		24.2	25.0
Wealth quintile (%)			P=0.089			P=0.786			P=0.505
Poorest	18.1	20.3		21.1	20.1		17.7	22.3
Poorer	19.6	21.7		22.4	20.6		22.8	20.0
Middle	22.2	20.9		19.0	18.8		19.1	19.2
Richer	19.8	18.4		18.1	21.4		22.1	19.7
Richest	20.3	18.7		19.4	19.1		18.2	18.8
Residence			P=0.478			P=0.365			P=0.587
Rural	87.5	82.4		87.4	80.1		90.2	85.9
Urban	12.5	17.6		12.6	19.9		9.8	14.1
Current marital status (%)			P=0.265			P=0.014			P=0.957
Unmarried	16.7	19.1		16.1	20.8		22.5	22.3
Married/cohabiting	83.3	80.9		83.9	79.2		77.5	77.7
Woman’s employment (%)			P=0.453			P=0.022			P=0.140
Unemployed	34.6	39.2		40.4	50.4		45.4	51.3
Informally employed	43.6	41.1		48.0	39.1		48.1	39.8
Formally employed	21.8	19.7		11.5	10.6		6.4	8.8
Parity (%)			P=0.451			P=0.484			P=0.978
1 child	17.7	20.5		21.1	23.6		27.9	27.3
2–3 children	44.2	43.4		43.6	43.0		44.6	45.0
≥4 children	38.1	36.2		35.3	33.4		27.5	27.8
Health insurance enrolment (%)			P<0.001			P=0.032			P=0.283
Uninsured	86.5	93.4		86.3	90.8		79.7	82.8
Insured	13.5	6.6		13.7	9.2		20.3	17.2
Total no of women	871	1017		1066	1132		592	645