Demographic Variables as a Determinant of Health Promotion Practices among Postpartum Women Attending Primary Health Care Centers in Abia State

Abstract

Little is known about the engagement of health promotion practices of postpartum women in Abia State; and no empirical data was identified in Abia State hence the motivation to determine demographic Variables as a determinant of health promotion practices among postpartum women attending primary health care centers in Abia State. To achieve this purpose, 8 specific purposes, and 8 corresponding research questions and 8 hypotheses were raised. Descriptive survey design was adopted. Multi-stage sampling technique was used to draw 600 postpartum women attending primary health care centers at Abia State between September and October, 2021. Research instrument was a researcher- developed questionnaire tagged “Health Promotion Practices Questionnaire, (HPPQ)” which was divided into two clusters (breastfeeding and personal hygiene). Three experts validated the instrument. The HPPQ was subjected to reliability test using Kuder-Richardson (K-R 20) and the reliability coefficients 0.61 and 0.69 were obtained for breastfeeding and personal hygiene respectively. Analysis was done using 462 adequately completed copies of the instrument. Frequencies and percentages were used to answer the research questions, while chi-square statistics was used to test the hypotheses at .05 alpha levels. The findings showed that greater proportion of women below 23years of age engaged less in health promotion practices regarding personal hygiene and breastfeeding. Also, postpartum women of parity level of 1-3 engaged most in health promotion practices of breastfeeding and personal hygiene. Postpartum women who were either civil servants or business women engaged most in health promotion practices stipulated in this study while those postpartum women of educational group of primary education and no-formal education engaged less in health promotion practices of breastfeeding and personal hygiene. There were significant differences among postpartum women of different ages, parity levels, educational status and occupational levels in their engagement of health promotion practices. Based on the above findings, conclusions were drawn and recommendations among others were made: every postpartum woman should be adequately informed and sensitized on the importance of postpartum care and the essence of regular attendance to Primary Health care centers during postpartum period, particularly the younger ones, using appropriate channels and settings.