Malaria education provided by midwives and nurses to pregnant women attending antenatal clinics within Tarkwa Nsuaem municipal assembly, Western region, Ghana

It is estimated that about 3.4 billion people living in 92 countries of the world are at risk of malaria infection. In 2018, WHO Africa Region accounted for 93% of global malaria cases and 94% of malaria deaths. Pregnant women in these malaria prone countries are more likely to get infected with malaria, suffer severe complications and unfortunately die from the disease, than any other group of people. In Sub-Saharan African countries like Ghana, health education forms an integral part of the methods used in the implementation of malaria control interventions. This research therefore sought to discover the malaria education midwives and nurses provide to pregnant women attending antenatal clinics within Tarkwa Nsuaem Municipal Assembly in Ghana. A cross sectional descriptive quantitative research design was used with a sample size of 356 participants using stratified random sampling method. TNMA was divided into two (2) zones and two (2) health facilities with the highest antenatal attendance were selected purposively. Pregnant women from these health facilities who met the inclusion criteria were randomly selected. These pregnant women completed a self-completion questionnaire after signing the consent form. The data collected were analysed using SPSS 16.0. Most (95.8%) of the pregnant women had heard of malaria through Home/family members, Hospital/antenatal clinics, and Television as their top three sources of malaria education. The respondents’ malaria knowledge was high. The malaria health education is provided anytime they visit the antenatal clinic and includes their husbands and partners. Topics covered in the education were causes, symptoms, diagnosis, first aid, treatment, and prevention of Malaria. It is recommended that learning aids especially pictures and videos should be used during the education to make it exciting. Also, husbands and partners should be involved in the education to improve compliance to malaria education.

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

University of Zululand

Year dc:date.issued

2021

Author dc:creator

• Amoah, James Mckeown

• Malaria
• midwives
• pregnant women

Licence

• https://devspace.unizulu.ac.za/bitstreams/491a43e0-27c1-435f-a58b-fcf9f54a02bb/download