Women’s Use of Antenatal Care Services: A Systematic Review

Abstract

Objectives: The aim of this study is to explore the factors affecting the utilization of antenatal care to facilitate the proper use of such services. Design: Multiple international electronic databases such as International Scientific Indexing, PubMed, Ovid, Proquest, Google Scholar, Scopus, and Scientific Information Database were used to discover articles written in English and published from 2015 to 2019 by using relevant keywords; and the reference lists of the articles were hand-searched. All cross-sectional studies focusing on factors impacting the utilization of antenatal care were searched, including community based, prospective, and retrospective studies, both quantitative and qualitative. Results: A total of 15 related papers were included in this study. The findings revealed that demographic factors, socioeconomic factors, attitudes, education, social support, and working status of the mothers were considered as factors influencing the utilization of antenatal care. Conclusion: Promoting the application of antenatal care services can be achieved by improving mothers’ attitudes and economic status, as well as addressing their basic needs such as education and financial independence.