Article Sidebar
Published:
Apr 20, 2023Article Details
The Journal is owned, published, and copyrighted by the Nigerian Medical Association, River state Branch. The copyright of papers published are vested in the journal and the publisher. Open access authors retain the copyrights of their papers, with the work three months after publication simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License (Attribution, Non-Commercial, No Derivatives” 4.0) - (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
Main Article Content
Demographic correlates of gestational age at booking among antenatal clinic attendees in secondary healthcare facilities in semiurban/rural areas of Rivers state, Southern Nigeria
Abstract
Background: Pregnancy related complications remain unacceptably high in Nigeria. Antenatal Care is one of the pillars of safe motherhood. Early booking is known to improve outcomes and demographic factors correlate with the timing of booking. The aim of this study is to determine the booking pattern and demographic correlates of rural/semi-urban dwellers.
Method: The study was a cross-sectional study of women registering for Antenatal Care in Zonal/General Hospitals sited in rural/semi-urban areas of Rivers State, Southern Nigeria between January and June 2022.
Results: Half (50%) of the participants were aged between 21 and 30 years with a mean age was 29.86 ± 6.07. Majority (54%) were business women and 61.5% had secondary level of education. 57.5% of their spouses were businessmen and 51% had secondary level of education. Participants who booked early were 13.5%. Multivariate analysis revealed significant association between early booking and Parity (p=0.023), Spouse’s Occupation (p=0.02), Marital Status (p=0.013) and Spouse’s Education (p=0.01). Majority (66.7%) were either nullipara or primipara.
Conclusion: Early booking remains a challenge in these women especially the multiparous women and the spouses of the women play a significant role in their health seeking behaviour with low spousal education associated with early booking.
