title: Factors associated with the utilization and content of prenatal care in a western urban district of Turkey.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To define the prenatal care utilization pattern in Bornova and determine the factors affecting the amount and content of prenatal care.
  
  
  METHODS
  Follow-up study.
  
  
  METHODS
  Bornova is an urban district in western Turkey.
  
  
  METHODS
  Two hundred and forty-five pregnant women registered with primary care settings in Bornova during the year 2000. Response rate was 83.7%. Main outcome measure. We determined the amount of prenatal care using Adequacy of Prenatal Care Utilization Index. Criteria used to assess the content of services include number of checks for maternal weight gain, blood pressure and foetal heart-beat measurements, advice about healthy lifestyles, laboratory examinations, and tetanus immunization.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Rates of the women who visited public primary health care settings, private care sources, and public hospitals at least once were 76.0, 57.1, and 54.6%, respectively. As to prenatal care, 64.9% of the participants received an adequate amount and 25.9% an adequate content. Parity (P = 0.00), insurance coverage (P = 0.00), abortion history (P = 0.03), husband's occupation (P = 0.00), maternal age (P = 0.04), and level of educational attainment (P = 0.03) were related to the amount of care. Employment status (P = 0.03), continuous use of private sources (P = 0.00) and public hospitals (P =0.01) were associated with the content.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study has highlighted considerable associations between the amount of prenatal care and individual features in addition to those among the content of care, individual features and type of care sources. Causes of variations in prenatal care delivered in urban and relatively wealthy populations of developing countries must be explored using the appropriate criteria.
authors.affiliation: Ege University, Public Health, Izmir, Turkey.
authors.forename: Meltem
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ciceklioglu
authors.forename: Meral Türk
authors.initials: MT
authors.lastname: Soyer
authors.forename: Zeliha Asli
authors.initials: ZA
authors.lastname: Ocek
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D019458:Insurance Coverage; D008423:Maternal Age; D010298:Parity; D011247:Pregnancy; D011295:Prenatal Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D014421:Turkey; D019037:Urban Health Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*