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Abstract

Introduction
Group antenatal care (GANC) is an alternative to traditional individual antenatal care (IANC), which combines health assessment, interactive learning, and community building in group sessions. GANC has been associated with positive health outcomes. To scale up GANC, more evidence is needed on the financial implications of its initial implementation and (long-term) cost-effectiveness. This study aims to review and synthesise the available evidence on the economics of GANC.

Methods
We searched for observational and experimental studies assessing the cost aspects of implementing and running GANC with or without comparison with IANC.

Information sources
We searched PubMed, EMBASE, and Ovid Emcare up to 22 August 2024 using keywords and controlled vocabulary without restriction by year of publication.

Quality Assessment
CASP Economic Evaluation Checklist.

Data Synthesis
Narrative synthesis.

Results
A limited number of studies (n = 9) addressing the costs and/or benefits of GANC were eligible to be included in the review. These studies varied considerably in setting, design, quality, type of cost data, cost categories included and perspective used.

Conclusion
Evidence on the costs of GANC is sparse. Future studies of the lifetime costs and health outcomes of GANC compared with IANC are needed to gain insight into the cost implications and cost-effectiveness of GANC and to scale up its implementation.

Publication Type:	Article
Additional Information:	This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
Publisher Keywords:	Antenatal care, Costs, Economics, Group care, Keywords, Pregnancy
Subjects:	R Medicine > RA Public aspects of medicine > RA0421 Public health. Hygiene. Preventive Medicine
Departments:	School of Health & Medical Sciences School of Health & Medical Sciences > Department of Nursing & Midwifery
SWORD Depositor:	Symplectic Administrator

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