FACTORS INFLUENCING PRENATAL CLASS ATTENDANCE AMONG IMMIGRANTS IN OTTAWA-CARLETON

A longitudinal study, examining predictors of infant care behaviours a mong 283 immigrants in Ottawa-Carleton, included an analysis of factor s predicting prenatal class attendance. On bivariate analysis, signifi cant predictors among primiparas included mother's age and education, official language comprehension ability, average number of years resid ent in Canada, and current immigration status. Using logistic regressi on analysis, the odds ratio for prenatal class attendance was 7.36 for mothers with excellent or very good official language comprehension c ompared with mothers who self-rated their ability as fair or poor. Com pared with primiparas who were 35 years or older, young mothers (< 25 years) were less likely to have attended prenatal classes (OR = .28) a nd mothers aged 30 to 34 years were more likely to have attended (OR = 2.22). Among multiparas, maternal age was the only significant predic tor of prenatal class attendance. Findings suggest the need for new ap proaches to prenatal education for immigrant mothers.