RESUMO
AIM: To determine the cost of prenatal care services provided to pregnant women in the city of Aydin, Turkey. METHOD: This cross-sectional study was conducted over the period of February-December 2016 at the Aydin 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.
RESUMO
PURPOSE: This study aimed to investigate the extent of knowledge and use of emergency contraception among women of reproductive age and to identify barriers existing in Turkey in this context. There is limited research regarding the knowledge and use and barriers to emergency contraception use, since the prepackaged form of hormonal emergency contraception has been available over the counter in Turkey. METHODS: This is a descriptive, cross-sectional study of 257 women. Data were collected through face to face interviews with a questionnaire on sociodemographic features, knowledge, use and barriers to emergency contraception. RESULTS: The rate of unintended pregnancies and abortions was noteworthy in the study, where 36.3% of the subjects revealed previous unintended pregnancies and 62.3% of them had undergone surgical termination or spontaneous loss. Remarkably, 42.1% of the respondents had never heard of emergency contraception. Common barriers to the use of emergency contraception were lack of awareness, misconceptions that the pills are abortion-inducing and unavailable without prescription, and anxiety about harming the fetus. The results indicated differences in practice, although emergency contraception is included in contraception counseling. Sixty percent of the subjects counseled by healthcare professionals stated that they were not informed about emergency contraception; a majority expressed a willingness to receive such information. CONCLUSION: Our study has revealed knowledge deficiency on the part of reproductive-aged women about the effective use, safety, mechanism of action, availability without prescription and legal status of emergency contraception. Client barriers were also found, particularly a lack of awareness. Healthcare professionals are in a key position to provide information and to overcome the barriers.
