Abstract

Malaria continues to constitute a cause for morbidity and mortality among populations of pregnant women and children in regions of the world with high transmission. The persistent poor pregnancy outcomes and unacceptably high mortality despite efforts to facilitate reduction are reasons to continue malaria research in order to fully understand the behavioral factors associated with current trends. The aim of this study was to explore levels of knowledge, attitudes about malaria and preventive practices among pregnant women attending antenatal clinic at Olabisi Onabanjo University Teaching Hospital (OOUTH), Sagamu, Nigeria and to find out whether age and educational attainment are associated with risk of malaria transmission. This was cross-sectional descriptive study. Data about demographic characteristics, knowledge, attitude and practice of malaria prevention was obtained from 137 participants who consented through a validated 36-item interviewer-administered questionnaire (reliability coefficient of 0.74). Analysis of variance was used to test differences in measures across age and education with a cut-off set at p≤0.05 level of significance. The results showed that the median age of participants was 20 years and majority (80.3%) had at least secondary school education with 9.5% reporting non-formal education. Results also showed that knowledge and attitude about malaria measured on 15- and 18-point scales respectively reported for the participants mean scores of 10.73 ±1.62 and 9.77±3.64 respectively. When malaria prevention practice was assessed on a 24-point scale, participants scored a mean of 13.69±3.82 which translates to 57.0% of the level of preventive practice expected from the pregnant women. The study also revealed that younger participants and women with non-formal education consistently reported lowest scores for knowledge (F=16.22, p<0.0001 and F=75.22, p<0.0001), attitudes regarding malaria complications in pregnancy (F=16.13, p<0.0001 and F =75.22, p<0.0001) and malaria preventive practices (F =21.90, p<0.0001 and F=11.89, p<0.0001). Findings suggest moderate knowledge with average attitude and inadequate malaria preventive practices among the pregnant mothers surveyed and recommends that well designed health education programme about malaria and their implications in pregnancy should be incorporated in clinic activities to enhance their preventive practices.