Preconception health services availability, awareness and attitudes among women of reproductive age in Morogoro, Tanzania
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Date
2014
Authors
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Publisher
Sokoine University of Agriculture
Abstract
A study was carried out to determine Preconception Health Services (PCHS) availability, awareness and attitudes among women of reproductive age in Morogoro. The cross- sectional design was applied using concurrent mixed method whereby quantitative and qualitative approaches were used to collect data. Quantitative data were analysed to get descriptive statistics, test for association using Chi-square and finally logistic regression using Epi info 7 software package was employed to identify determinants of awareness. A total of 470 (91.1%) women participated in the study out of 516 women who were invited. The mean age of women involved into the study was 31.5 years which ranged from 18 to 49 years. The predominant PCHS component routinely practiced with guidelines in place was family planning services. Other components were offered as needed. The study revealed that 75% of women who were involved into study were informed about PCHS. Age, marital status, education level and parity were found to be associated with PCHS awareness among women of reproductive age using logistic regression. The study further showed that all women had an index score greater than 0.5 with a mean score of 0.91 meaning that all women had a positive attitude towards PCHS. It is concluded that the PCHS in Tanzania are not routinely provided with the exception of family planning services. There were gaps in knowledge even in the highly motivated population of women who were planning to get pregnant and all women involved in the study had positive attitudes towards PCHS. The author recommends that the Ministry of Health and
Social Welfare should provide comprehensive guidelines for PCHS services. Furthermore larger population-based studies are needed to assess knowledge and attitude in the general population with regard to PCHS, so that appropriate health promotion and education programs can be implemented.
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Masters Theses
Keywords
Preconception care-Morogoro Region, Health services accessibility, Women-Health, Health knowledge, Attitudes, Practice, Tanzania, Morogoro Region