The Cost of Prenatal Care Services in the City of Aydın: A Cross-Sectional Study

Year 2019, Volume: 27 Issue: 3, 253 - 262, 01.10.2019

Safiye Özvurmaz Zekiye Karaçam , Vesile Ünay

Abstract

DOI: 10.26650/FNJN423377

Aim: To determine the cost of prenatal care
services provided to pregnant women in the city of Aydın, Turkey.

Method: This cross-sectional study was
conducted over the period of February-December 2016 at the Aydın Maternity and
Children’s Hospital. The convenience sampling method was used to recruit 403
women who were in weeks 36-42 of pregnancy into the study. Data for the study
were collected with the Descriptive Information Form and the Prenatal Care
Service Usage Form.  Descriptive
statistics, Mann-Whitney U and Kruskal-Wallis tests were used to analyse data.

Results: It was determined that the
pregnant women were followed up an average total number of 10.94±4.30 times and
97.0% received care at the state hospital. It was found that for each pregnant
woman, the mean total cost of prenatal care was $138.77±$93.44, the sum paid by
general health insurance was $96.12±$46.38, individual contributions stood at
$25.05±$10.43 and payments made to the private institutions was
$110.32±$142.31.  It was observed that
the total prenatal care cost was not influenced by some of the characteristics
of the pregnant women.

Conclusion: It was revealed in the study
that most pregnant women received prenatal care at the state hospitals and at
family health centers and that they had approximately 11 prenatal care
follow-ups amounting to a total mean cost of about $139. A contribution can be
made to making prenatal care more cost-effective by organizing the number and
scope of prenatal care sites on the basis of the individual characteristics of
risk factors pregnant women. 

Cite this article as: Özvurmaz, S.,
Karaçam, Z, Ünay, V. (2019). The cost of prenatal care services in the City of
Aydın: A cross-sectional study. FNJN Florence Nightingale Journal of Nursing,
27(3), 253-262.

Keywords

Cost, follow-up, prenatal care

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