Malaria treatment seeking behaviour among pregnant women in Ondo West Local Government

Abstract

Pregnant women are vulnerable to malaria as pregnancy reduces a woman's immunity to malaria, making her more susceptible to infection and increasing risk of severe anaemia and death especially in first pregnancy. This study was aimed to identify factors associated with different malaria treatment behaviours among pregnant women and explore these factors to gain information to guide the planning of preventive strategies and treatment of malaria among pregnant women in Ondo West LGA. A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted among 240 pregnant women who presented with signs and symptoms of malaria. A set of interviewer-administered, semi-structured questionnaire was used to collect data on socio-demographic characteristics, knowledge, practices, and major influencing factors of treatment seeking behaviours for the study. The mean age of the respondents was 22 ± 1.1. One hundred and eighty three (76.3%) had high knowledge of malaria transmission, symptoms, and prevention, despite this; only 100 (41.7%) sought early malaria treatment. Those with no formal education were 99.7% less likely than those with post tertiary education to seek early malaria treatment (OR = 0.003, C.I= 0.00-0.07). Pregnant women who made health centres/clinic as their first point of seeking treatment were 44.2 times more likely than those who use local herb to seek for early malaria treatment (OR = 44.2, C.I= 11.6-55.4). In conclusion, whereas the knowledge of pregnant women about malaria cause, transmission, signs and symptom was good, most of the pregnant women still sought late for malaria treatment. Therefore it is recommended to improve the dissemination of appropriate information on malaria in Ondo West LGA through active education campaigns to encourage early treatment seeking behavior and utilization of health centres especially among younger women and uneducated pregnant women.