Impact of COVID-19 on Antenatal Care Utilization Among Pregnant Women in Qassim, Saudi Arabia

Background and objectives Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has affected routine service delivery which might affect antenatal care (ANC) utilization among pregnant women. This study aimed to assess the proportion of missed appointments among pregnant women in the Qassim region of Saudi Arabia during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods A facility-based cross-sectional survey was conducted among pregnant women admitted for delivery in Maternity and Children Hospital (MCH), Buraidah. Data were collected on socio-demographics, obstetric history, missed appointments and reasons for missing the appointment. Analysis was carried out in Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS), version 21.0 (IBM Corp., Armonk, NY). Medians with interquartile range (IQR) were presented for continuous variables and frequency and proportions for categorical variables. Logistic regression was used to assess the factors associated with the missed appointment. Results A total of 400 women were included in the study. About one-third (30%) of the women had missed at least one ANC appointment in their current pregnancy. The most common reasons for missing the appointments in primary care and hospitals, respectively, were: fear of infection 52% and 47%, facility not working usual 25% and 7.5%, fear of infection to child 19% and 17%. Family size and gravidity were the significant factors associated with missed appointments in our study. Conclusions Nearly one-third of women missed their ANC appointments during the COVID-19 pandemic. Major reasons were related to COVID-19 fear and its effect on services. This calls for proper health communication in the general population and delivering routine care with evidence-based guidelines to maintain continuity of care.