Abstract:
BACKGROUND : Globally, there are about 800 maternal deaths every day, with low-to-middle-income countries
accounting for most of these deaths. A lack of access to maternal healthcare services is one of the main causes of
these deaths. In sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), one of the barriers to accessing maternal healthcare services by
women is a lack of their male partners’ involvement. This scoping review aimed to assess the enablers and
barriers to men’s involvement in maternal healthcare services.
METHODS s: The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis extension for Scoping Reviews
(PRISMA-ScR) checklist was used as a guide for this review. We searched for peer-reviewed articles published
between 2013 and 2023 in the English language from SCOPUS, ScienceDirect, PubMed, Africa Journals Online
(AJOL), and Google Scholar databases. Two reviewers independently conducted the data extraction and article
selection. All of the authors discussed and decided on the codes and categories for enablers and barriers after
using NVivo to generate them.
RESULTS : Twenty-seven articles were used in this review. Of these, seventeen were qualitative studies, six were
quantitative studies, and four were mixed-methods studies. The enablers of men’s involvement in maternal
healthcare were grouped into sociodemographic factors, health system factors, and policy factors, while barriers
were grouped into sociodemographic, cultural, economic, and health system barriers. The lack of maternal health
knowledge, insufficient economic resources, and unfriendly staff at healthcare facilities all contributed to a lack
of involvement by men.
CONCLUSION : To improve men’s involvement in maternal healthcare in SSA, there should be economic empowerment
of both men and women, health education, and the provision of adequate infrastructure in healthcare
facilities to accommodate men.
