SynthesisFrontiers in public health2024
Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on access to and delivery of maternal and child healthcare services in low-and middle-income countries: a systematic review of the literature.
Synthesis in Frontiers in public health, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 19 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
19 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 23 citations in OpenAlex.
- Quality of clinical practice guidelines on the COVID-19 management in pregnancy during the pandemic: a systematic review.European journal of public health · 2025Pooled it
- Indicators associated with job morale of physicians in low- and middle-income countries during the COVID- 19 pandemic: a systematic review and meta-analysis.BMC health services research · 2025Pooled it
- Impact of COVID-19 on Utilization of Healthcare Services Among People Living with HIV (PLHIV): A Systematic Review.Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania) · 2025Pooled it
- Tracking the impact of maternal health service coverage on maternal mortality across 137 low- and middle-income countries in the progress toward Sustainable Development Goals.Journal of global health · 2026Article
- Perceptions of healthcare professionals of the application of the National Program for Women and Child Health in Bacău County, Romania: a cross-sectional study.Medicine and pharmacy reports · 2026Article
- Policy stringency during the COVID-19 pandemic and healthcare services utilization in China: An interrupted time-series analysis.PLoS medicine · 2026Article
- The trends of congenital heart defects burden in BRICS-plus from 1990 to 2021 and its projection to 2035.BMC pregnancy and childbirth · 2026Observational
- Deaths of female sex workers and sexually exploited adolescent girls during the COVID-19 pandemic in Kenya, Nigeria, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo: Results of a cross-sectional study.PLOS global public health · 2026Article
- Five decades of advancing global maternal and newborn health and rights: Milestones and initiatives.International journal of gynaecology and obstetrics: the official organ of the International Federation of Gynaecology and Obstetrics · 2026Review
- Comorbidities among women presenting for obstetric care in Uganda.BMC pregnancy and childbirth · 2025Article
- Maternal mortality in Peru: trends, determinants, inequalities, and the impact of COVID-19.International journal for equity in health · 2025Article
- A systematic review of COVID-19's impact on pregnancy outcomes.Annals of medicine and surgery (2012) · 2025Review
- The challenges of prenatal care services during the COVID-19 pandemic: qualitative evidence of primary health care providers' perspective in Iran.BMC primary care · 2025Article
- Healthcare utilization in the departments of obstetrics and gynecology during the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic: time series analysis in Jining, China.BMC public health · 2025Article
- Excess deaths from all-causes mortality in children following the discontinuation of the COVID-19 policy in Thailand.BMC public health · 2025Article
- Predicting Intensive Care Unit Admission in COVID-19-Infected Pregnant Women Using Machine Learning.Journal of clinical medicine · 2024Article
- Association ofViruses · 2024Article
- Implementation of Virtual Antenatal and Postnatal Urgent Midwifery Visits: Evaluation of a Quality Improvement Initiative.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2024Article
- Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has had a multifaceted impact on maternal and child services and adversely influenced pregnancy outcomes. This systematic review aims to determine the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on access to and delivery of maternal and child healthcare services in low- and middle-income countries. Methods: The review was reported following Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines. A primary search of electronic databases was performed using a combination of search terms related to the following areas of interest: "impact' AND 'COVID-19' AND 'maternal and child health services' AND 'low- and middle-income countries. A narrative synthesis approach was used to analyse and integrate the results. Results: Overall, 45 unique studies conducted across 28 low- and middle-income countries met the inclusion criteria for the review. The findings suggest the number of family planning visits, antenatal and postnatal care visits, consultations for sick children, paediatric emergency visits and child immunisation levels decreased compared to the pre-pandemic levels in the majority of included studies. An analytical framework including four main categories was developed based on the concepts that emerged from included studies: the anxiety of not knowing (1), overwhelmed healthcare systems (2), challenges perceived by healthcare professionals (3) and difficulties perceived by service users (4). Conclusion: The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted family planning services, antenatal and postnatal care coverage, and emergency and routine child services. Generalised conclusions are tentative due to the heterogeneity and inconsistent quality of the included studies. Future research is recommended to define the pandemic's impact on women and children worldwide and prepare healthcare systems for future resurgences of COVID-19 and potential challenges beyond. Systematic review registration: PROSPERO (CRD42021285178).
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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.