Scale development study for multidimensional evaluation of prenatal care services in primary care

Objective: The aim of this study was to develop a scale for the multidimensional evaluation of prenatal care services provided in primary health care facilities in Şanlıurfa province and to evaluate the effect of various sociodemographic characteristics of the participants on the scale scores. Method: The study is of methodological type. The study data were collected between November 2023 and December 2023. The study data were collected by face-to-face interview method in Eyyübiye Training and Research Hospital Gynecology and Obstetrics Polyclinic. After two pilot studies of 100 people each, 450 people were reached for the main study. Validity and reliability analyses showed that the candidate scale was usable. Results: The mean age of the participants was 25.34±4.86 years, 27.6% had health problems in previous births, 15.3% had children under 1 year of age and 65.6% had children under 5 years of age. As a result of the exploratory factor analysis, the cronbach alpha of the scale consisting of 26 items and 5 sub-dimensions was found to be 0.844. After the confirmatory factor analysis, it was determined that sub-dimension scores and total score could be obtained from the scale. Considering the mean score per question, the lowest mean score was found in the coordination sub-dimension (1.97±0.69) and the highest mean score was found in the privacy sub-dimension (2.78±0.41). Conclusion: In this study, a scale for the multidimensional evaluation of prenatal care services within primary health care services was developed. Based on the analyses, it is thought XI that the scale will be appropriate to be used to evaluate prenatal care provided in primary care in pregnant women. Keywords: Multidimensional evaluation, primary care, prenatal care, scale developme