Knowledge of neonatal danger signs among mothers attending well baby clinic in Nakuru Central District, Kenya: cross sectional descriptive study.

Elizabeth Gathoni Kibaru,Amos Magembe Otara

doi:10.1186/s13104-016-2272-3

Abstract

BackgroundNeonatal mortality has remained high in Kenya despite various efforts being applied to reduce this negative trend. Early detection of neonatal illness is an important step towards improving new born survival. Toward this end there is need for the mothers to be able to identify signs in neonates that signifies severe neonatal illnesses. The objective of the study was to determine the level of knowledge of mothers attending well baby clinics on postnatal neonatal danger signs and determine the associated factors.Study designCross sectional descriptive study.Study methodsPurposive sampling of Health care facilities that provide antenatal, delivery and postnatal services were identified. In each of the selected health facility structured questionnaires were administered to mothers with children aged six weeks to nine months attending well baby clinics. Frequencies, Chi square and multivariate logistic regression were determined using the SPSS software (version 20).ResultsDuring the period of study 414 mothers attending well baby clinics were interviewed. Information on neonatal dangers was not provided to 237 (57.2%) of the postnatal mothers during their antenatal clinic attendance by the health care providers. Majority of mothers 350 (84.5%) identified less than three neonatal danger signs. Hotness of the body (fever) was the commonly recognized danger sign by 310 (74.9%) postnatal mothers. Out of 414 mothers 193 (46.6%), 166 (40.1%), 146 (35.3%) and 24 (5.8%) identified difficulty in breathing, poor sucking, jaundice and lethargy/unconsciousness as new born danger signs respectively. Only 46 (11.1%) and 40 (9.7%) identified convulsion and hypothermia as new born danger signs respectively. Education Level, PNC accompaniment by Spouse, Danger signs information to Mother, Explanation of MCH booklet by Care provider during ANC and Mother read MCH Booklet were factors positively associated with improved knowledge of neonatal danger sign. In multivariate logistic regression none of the factors tested were statistically significant in relation to level of knowledge.ConclusionKnowledge of neonatal danger signs was low among mothers attending well baby clinic despite the information being available in the MCH booklets provided to the mothers during antenatal clinics.

Highlights

Neonatal mortality has remained high in Kenya despite various efforts being applied to reduce this negative trend
Education Level, postnatal care (PNC) accompaniment by Spouse, Danger signs information to Mother, Explanation of mother and child health (MCH) booklet by Care provider during antenatal care (ANC) and Mother read MCH Booklet were factors positively associated with improved knowledge of neonatal danger sign
Knowledge of neonatal danger signs was low among mothers attending well baby clinic despite the information being available in the MCH booklets provided to the mothers during antenatal clinics

Summary

Introduction

Neonatal mortality has remained high in Kenya despite various efforts being applied to reduce this negative trend. Detection of neonatal illness is an important step towards improving new born survival. Toward this end there is need for the mothers to be able to identify signs in neonates that signifies severe neonatal illnesses. The objective of the study was to determine the level of knowledge of mothers attending well baby clinics on postnatal neonatal danger signs and determine the associated factors. In Kenya the percentage of mothers who attended postnatal care clinic within the first two days after delivery was 51% with no mention of percentage of new-borns who were reviewed within the same period [4]. It has been noted that women’s utilization of maternal and neonatal health services are often influenced by perceived socio-cultural, economic and health system factors operating at the community, household and individual level as well as within the larger social and political environments and health care infrastructure [7, 8]

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