ArticleScandinavian journal of primary health care2026
Too much care? Increasing checkup frequencies and declining role of general practitioners in antenatal care in Norway (2010-2021).
Article in Scandinavian journal of primary health care, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
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
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
introductionThe antenatal care program is a cornerstone of Norway's national health programs, serving nearly 50 000 women annually. Although usage has risen since the 1980s, with antenatal checkups exceeding recommendations, research on utilization patterns and demography remains limited. Insight is essential for optimizing prenatal care services, containing costs, and avoiding potential overtreatment. MATERIAL AND
methodsThis retrospective descriptive study used registry data from the Control and Payment of Health Reimbursement database, Statistics Norway, and the Norwegian Patient Register, covering 381 092 women giving birth in Norway (2010-2021). Associations were estimated using Poisson regression.
resultsBetween Jan 1, 2010, and Dec 31, 2020, the mean number of antenatal checkups increased from 11.1 to 13.0, exceeding guidelines by 5.0. Midwife checkups increased by 2.4, while general practitioner (GP) checkups decreased by 1.1, progressively making midwives the main providers. Compared to women with lower secondary education, highly educated women had 7% more checkups by midwives and 12% fewer with GPs. They also sought GPs less before, during, and after pregnancy (48%, 20%, and 28% less). Women with 16+ checkups (upper quartile) had lower education and 1.6 more GP consultations the year before pregnancy than those with fewer checkups.
conclusionFrom 2010 to 2021, GPs saw a decrease in their role as main providers of antenatal checkups, with midwives now conducting most examinations. The average number of checkups rose by 1.9, not attributable to guideline changes, raising concerns about overutilization among a generally healthy group of women and implications for health system sustainability.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
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.