Abstract
Background: It is critical to understand the risk factors and preventive strategies for diseases associated with complications during pregnancy. Antenatal care (ANC) can be used to detect a neonatal problem, such as an infant's low birth weight (LBW). This study aimed to estimate the effect of ANC visits on the incidence of low birth weight based on the findings of prior studies.
Subjects and Method: The meta-analysis was carried out by searching original articles from databases such as Google Scholar, Science Direct, and PubMed. The articles were searched using the PICO format. Population: postpartum mothers. Intervention: irregular ANC visits. Comparison: regular ANC visits. Outcome: LBW. The keywords used are “maternal factor” AND “antenatal care” AND “low birth weight” AND “cross-sectional study”. Inclusion criteria included a cross-sectional study, full text, and published in 2013-2023. This meta-analysis followed the PRISMA diagram and data analysis was performed by RevMan 5.3.
Results: Meta-analysis of 9 cross-sectional studies from Indonesia, India, Nepal, Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Sudan, and Rwanda. The total sample size was 16,902 postpartum mothers. Postpartum mothers with irregular ANC visits had 2.21 times as much risk of delivering LBW infants as those with regular ANC visits (OR= 2.21; 95% CI= 1.56 to 3.13; p = 0.001).
Conclusion: Irregular ANC visits increase the risk of low birth weight infants.
Keywords: antenatal care, low birth weight, infants
Article Data
