Abstract
Background and objectivesCoronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has affected routine service delivery which might affect antenatal care (ANC) utilization among pregnant women. This study aimed to assess the proportion of missed appointments among pregnant women in the Qassim region of Saudi Arabia during the COVID-19 pandemic.MethodsA facility-based cross-sectional survey was conducted among pregnant women admitted for delivery in Maternity and Children Hospital (MCH), Buraidah. Data were collected on socio-demographics, obstetric history, missed appointments and reasons for missing the appointment. Analysis was carried out in Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS), version 21.0 (IBM Corp., Armonk, NY). Medians with interquartile range (IQR) were presented for continuous variables and frequency and proportions for categorical variables. Logistic regression was used to assess the factors associated with the missed appointment.ResultsA total of 400 women were included in the study. About one-third (30%) of the women had missed at least one ANC appointment in their current pregnancy. The most common reasons for missing the appointments in primary care and hospitals, respectively, were: fear of infection 52% and 47%, facility not working usual 25% and 7.5%, fear of infection to child 19% and 17%. Family size and gravidity were the significant factors associated with missed appointments in our study.ConclusionsNearly one-third of women missed their ANC appointments during the COVID-19 pandemic. Major reasons were related to COVID-19 fear and its effect on services. This calls for proper health communication in the general population and delivering routine care with evidence-based guidelines to maintain continuity of care.
Highlights
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic affected the health and lives of people across the globe
This calls for proper health communication in the general population and delivering routine care with evidence-based guidelines to maintain continuity of care
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a large proportion of health care resources have been diverted from routine care delivery to the pandemic response
Summary
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic affected the health and lives of people across the globe. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a large proportion of health care resources have been diverted from routine care delivery to the pandemic response. This diversion of resources may lead to the disruption of other essential care services [4]. Service utilization by the population may decline due to unavailability, fear of infection and constrained access [5] All these factors can adversely affect the most vulnerable segment of the population, i.e., pregnant women. Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has affected routine service delivery which might affect antenatal care (ANC) utilization among pregnant women. This study aimed to assess the proportion of missed appointments among pregnant women in the Qassim region of Saudi Arabia during the COVID-19 pandemic
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