Hossein Jabbari Beyrami
1, mahasti alizadeh
2, Fariba Bakhshian
3, Elham Khanlarzadeh
4, Fariba Heidari
5, zhila khamnian
5*1 Associate Professor, Department of Community Medicine, School of Medicine, National Public Health Management Center, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran
2 Associate Professor, Department of Community Medicine, School of Medicine, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran
3 Vice-Chancellor Office, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran
4 Assistant Professor, Department of Community Medicine, School of Medicine, Hamadan University of Medical Sciences, Hamadan, Iran
5 Assistant Professor, Department of Community Medicine, School of Medicine, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran
Abstract
Introduction: Improving of
mother and child health is one of the most important and essential roles of
public health agencies and millennium development goals. The aim of this study
was to determine rates of prenatal care (PNC) utilization in Tabriz, Iran, from
1994-2013 and compare the two most commonly used models of PNC utilized in
determining the proportion of the pregnant woman receiving inadequate PNC and
comparing use of two indices.
Methods: In this study, we conducted a descriptive
cross-sectional study of 2834 women having a health record in care center of
the rural region in Tabriz for 20 years. We used questioner that validated in
the study Jabbari et al. for obtaining data. Random sampling quotes were done
in 3 times during the years 1994-2013.
Results: We found that 53% of mothers received adequate
care by adequate PNC utilization (APNCU) index, but 17% by revised-GINDEX index
but the most important objective of our study was identifying the relationship
between adequacy of PNC and pregnancy outcome. On the other hand, the study
indicated that between inadequate care and low birth weight (LBW), mother
weight gaining, birth height exists significant association, but there is no
meaningful correlation between birth weight and adequacy of care (P < 0.05).
Conclusion: The study analyzed the effect of PNC utilization
on birth outcomes and suggested that PNC decrease LBW through both increasing
gestational age as well as improving fetal growth at the same time it improves
birth height and mother weight gaining. All findings of this study emphasize
the need for health policies to improve utilization and access PNC.