Determinants of Antenatal Care in India: A Systematic Review

This systematic review provides a comprehensive analysis of the determinants of antenatal care (ANC) utilisation in India. PRISMA guidelines were followed, and four major databases were searched: Web of Science, SCOPUS, NCBI and PubMed. The scope of the results was confined to studies where the unit of analysis was humans, published in the English language up to December 2022. These selected studies were subjected to a critical appraisal utilising the Quality Assessment Tools developed by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The narrative approach used in the study ensures a thorough and critical review of existing literature on the subject matter. The findings were presented utilising a framework that categorises the factors influencing ANC utilisation into socio-demographic factors, availability-accessibility factors, affordability factors, characteristics of health services, women’s status in the household, and women’s knowledge, attitude, belief and culture. The results underscore the need for targeted interventions to improve maternal health outcomes in India, emphasising the importance of addressing systemic barriers to ANC utilisation.