Medical advice seeking behaviors of pregnant women in imo state, nigeria

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to determine the relationship between patterns of source and timing of medical advice-seeking behaviors and levels of education of pregnant women in Imo State, Nigeria. The descriptive survey research design was adopted for the study. The population was made up of pregnant women from the nine randomly drawn LGAs of Imo State. The sample size was 1,200 women. Multiple-stage sampling procedure was adopted. A self-developed structured interview protocol was used for data collection. Face and content validity of the instrument was ensured through constructive criticisms of seven health professionals. A test-re-test reliability method was used to determine reliability (r = 0.86). Descriptive statistics of percentage and inferential statistics of chi-square statistic were employed to interpret the result. The results showed that only few (19.1%) of the subjects sought medical advice; some appropriately from hospitals/maternities, while majority (60.8%) of the subjects delayed in seeking medical advice, while some appreciable number (11.07%) did not seek any medical advice at all. Only a few subjects (28.07%) sought medical advice on time. There was a significant difference between level of education and pattern of time of seeking medical advice. Therefore, public health education at various levels should include safe motherhood and family life education concepts that would sensitize the learner’s knowledge on the issues.

Keywords: Pregnant women, medical advice, health behaviors, hospital, maternities, Nigeria