HJAR May/Jun 2025

prenatal care. Fig. 1 displays the average number of prenatal care visits and adjusted predicted probability of fewer than recommended number of prenatal care visits, late initia- tion of prenatal care, and no prenatal care by payer, race/ethnicity, and rural/urban residence. 3.2. Differences by payer Those receiving Medicaid (adjusting for maternal age, parity, education, and race/ ethnicity) had lower/worse prenatal care utilization across all outcomes (Table 2). Mothers with a Medicaid-covered birth had 0.90 times fewer prenatal care visits, were 1.26 times more likely to have fewer than the recommended number of visits, were 1.60 times more likely to initiate prenatal care late, and were 1.46 times more likely to have reported no prenatal visits at all. 3.3. Differences by race/ethnicity Prenatal care utilization differed across race/ethnicity (Table 3). The number of prenatal care visits was lower for all racial/ ethnic groups relative to white mothers, with the largest differences found for NHPI mothers. Having fewer than the recommended number of prenatal care visits was signifi- cantly more prevalent in all racial/ethnic groups compared to white mothers, except for AIAN mothers. All racial/ethnic groups were more likely to have late initiation of prenatal care com- pared to white mothers. The greatest differ- ence was again for NHPI mothers. Having no prenatal care was more prev- alent among NHPI (ARR = 3.68, 95 % CI [2.66, 5.10]) and Black (ARR = 1.47, 95 % CI [1.34, 1.61]) mothers relative to white moth- ers. However, Hispanic (ARR = 0.79, 95 % CI [0.68, 0.92]) mothers were less likely to have reported no prenatal care visits. There were no significant differences between white mothers and Asian, AIAN, or multi- racial mothers. 3.4. Differences by rural/urban residence Those in rural areas were more likely to report late initiation of prenatal care (ARR HEALTHCARE JOURNAL OF ARKANSAS I  MAY / JUN 2025 13