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No. of pages: 54

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Abstract:

The purpose of this study was to assess the compliance to use of intermittent preventive therapy (IPTp) against malaria among pregnant women attending antenatal clinic at the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital (UCTH), Calabar Cross River State, Nigeria. In order to accomplish this purpose, three specific objectives were formulated and corresponding research questions were posed to guide the study.

One null hypothesis was postulated for testing.The descriptive cross-sectional design was adopted for the study. The total sample size for the study was 210 pregnant women attending antenatal clinic at the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital.A self developed, validated structured questionnaire was used for data collection. Descriptive statistics of frequencies and percentages were used for data analyses.

The hypothesis was tested with Chi-Square (X2). Results indicated that 82 (39.1%) of the respondents had good knowledge of IPTp, 66 (31.4%) had moderate knowledge of IPTp, while 62(29.5%) had poor knowledge of IPTp. Majority 135 (64.0%) of the respondents comply with the use of IPTp during pregnancy while 75(36.0%) did not. The findings also revealed that out of the 75(36.0%) respondents who did not comply with the use of IPTp, the majority 35(16.7%) attributed it to late antenatal booking, 15 (7.1%) attributed it to attitude of health workers while 11(5.2%) attributed it to fear of side effect. Significant relationship was found between knowledge level and compliance to the use of IPTp among the respondents.

This is so because the calculated X2 value of 79.4 is greater than the tabulated X2 value of 5.991. It was recommended among others that health education which will aim at increasing the compliance to IPTp among women should be carried out.