SynthesisBMC pregnancy and childbirth2023
First trimester antenatal care contact in Africa: a systematic review and meta-analysis of prevalence and contributing factors.
Synthesis in BMC pregnancy and childbirth, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 21 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
21 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 28 citations in OpenAlex.
- Integrating Social and Clinical Determinants of Pre-Eclampsia: A Hierarchical Systematic Review and Conceptual Framework for Prevention.BJOG : an international journal of obstetrics and gynaecology · 2026Pooled it
- Effective Implementation Strategies for Delivering Nutritional Interventions through the Health System to Prevent Malnutrition during Pregnancy: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.Advances in nutrition (Bethesda, Md.) · 2026Pooled it
- The Effect of Maternal Antenatal Care Utilisation on Childhood Acute Respiratory Infection: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2025Pooled it
- Factors influencing antenatal care utilisation in Madang Province, Papua New Guinea: a qualitative study.BMC pregnancy and childbirth · 2026Article
- Article
- Improving Effective Prenatal Care for New Obstetric Patients Using a Standardized Intake Template and Pregnancy Risk Calculator.Global journal on quality and safety in healthcare · 2026Article
- Equity of opportunity in China's essential public health services: influencing factors and moderating mechanisms.International health · 2026Article
- Time to initiation of antenatal care and its predictors among pregnant women across 35 sub-Saharan African countries (2011-2024): A multilevel mixed-effects acceleration failure time model of multination population survey data.Reproductive health · 2026Article
- Time to First Antenatal Care Booking and Its Predictors Among Pregnant Women Attending Antenatal Care Follow-up at Pawe General Hospital, Pawe District, Northwest Ethiopia, 2024: A Retrospective Study.Health science reports · 2026Article
- Why Do First Time Mothers in Sub-Saharan Africa Delay Their First Antenatal Care Visit? Evidence From Demographic and Health Surveys (2019-2022) From 18 Countries-A Cross-Sectional Study.Health science reports · 2025Article
- Quantifying maternal vaccination opportunities across gestational age windows: a real-world multi-country, longitudinal study.AJOG global reports · 2025Article
- Late initiation of antenatal care and its associated factors among pregnant women in Benin: a facility based cross-sectional study.BMC pregnancy and childbirth · 2025Article
- Modeling the potential impact of viral load monitoring on vertical transmission of HIV in Kenya.AIDS (London, England) · 2025Article
- The impact of multidimensional poverty on antenatal care service utilisation in Malawi.Health economics review · 2025Article
- Sociodemographic determinants and regional disparities of first-trimester antenatal care initiation among Nigerian women: a multilevel analysis of 2018 NDHS data.Frontiers in global women's health · 2025Article
- Sufficiency and consistency of antenatal care services in Ethiopia: Evidence from Mini Ethiopian demographic and health survey.PloS one · 2025Article
- Predicting delayed antenatal care initiation among pregnant women in East Africa: using machine learning algorithms.Frontiers in global women's health · 2025Article
- Exploring Perceptions about Enablers of Women's Attendance and Adherence to the Recommended Antenatal Care Visits in Rwanda: A Qualitative Study.Rwanda journal of medicine and health sciences · 2024Article
- Predictors of antenatal care services utilization by pregnant women in Afghanistan: Evidence from the Afghanistan Health Survey 2018.PloS one · 2024Article
- Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundEarly detection, prevention, and management of diseases associated with pregnancy and pregnancy-related conditions depend on the beginning of antenatal care contact in the first trimester. Across Africa, regional and national differences are observed in the proportion of first-trimester ANC contact and the factors contributing to it. To create a suitable intervention plan, it is crucial to overcome these differences through single standard and uniform guidelines. This can be achieved through meta-analysis and systematic reviews. Therefore, this systematic review aimed to assess the pooled prevalence of first trimester ANC contact and the factors contributing to it in Africa.
methodsObservational studies conducted in Africa were retrieved from PubMed, Google Scholar, EMASE, CINHAL, Cochrane Library, Hinari databases and Mednar using combinations of search terms with Boolean operators. The JBI 2020 Critical Appraisal Checklist was used to assess the methodological quality of the studies. To assess publication bias, a funnel plot and Egger's test were used to and I-squared was used to check the heterogeneity of the included studies. Data were extracted using Microsoft Excel and exported to Stata 16 software for analysis.
resultsA total of 86 articles with 224,317 study participants from 19 African countries were included. The overall pooled prevalence of first-trimester ANC contact was 37.15% (95% CI: 33.3-41.0; I
conclusionBecause so few women in Africa initiate first-trimester ANC contact, it is clear that increasing maternal healthcare service uptake is still a challenge and will require significant effort to scale up the services. When working to improve maternal health in Africa, each nation's government and nongovernmental organizations should prioritize raising women's educational levels and providing pertinent information to rural women, focusing on reducing unintended pregnancies, women who live far from health facilities, women with low socioeconomic statuses, multiparous women and older women.
trial registrationPROSPERO International Prospective Register of Systematic reviews (ID: CRD42023401711).
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.