Assessment of Awareness and Usage of Insecticide Treated Bednets among Pregnant Women Referred for Obstetric Scans in Port Harcourt Metropolis Rivers State Nigeria

Abstract

Background: Malaria in pregnancy causes high rate of miscarriages, intrauterine death, fetal growth restriction, placental problems, low- birth weight, neonatal death and premature delivery. This is a great public health challenge and so, measures to reduce this need to be advocated. We aimed at evaluating the level of awareness and usage of Insecticide Treated Bed nets (ITNs) among pregnant women referred for Obstetric Ultrasound in our locality. Materials and methods: Prospective cross sectional study design was adopted in this study. Only pregnant women referred for obstetric scans with malaria related clinical indications and consented to the study were included purposively. An ethical approval for the study was obtained and patients’ consent was properly sought. Patients’ information obtained was treated with high level of confidentiality. Obtained data were processed and analyzed using Scientific Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 21 and descriptive statistics. Results: Out of 456 participants included in this study, those that used insecticide treated nets sometimes were highest 45.40% (n=207) and the least were those that never used it 27.19% (n=124). Normal obstetric scan findings was highest among those that used nets always 19.74% (n=90). 40.32% (n=50) had no specific reasons for not using the nets. Conclusion: Although there is increased awareness level and usage of Insecticide Treated Bed nets among participants recruited in this study, the awareness level is still below expectation of about 98%. Large numbers of the participants were younger pregnant women with higher educational status. Majority of them said they have no specific reasons for not using the nets. Normal obstetric scan finding was the most common findings and this shows that the net is proved to be useful in preventing malaria in pregnancy. To actually win a war against malaria related complications in pregnancy, both the government and health workers need to increase the insecticide treated bed nets (ITNs) awareness and usage campaign via health education at all the levels of educational system.