Knowledge and risk perception of the complications of maternal obesity among pregnant women attending the Antenatal Clinic at a Tertiary Hospital, Kaduna State

Abstract

Background: Obesity is a worldwide epidemic with major health and economic consequences. Pregnancy is a trigger point for the
development of obesity, and maternal obesity is associated with short- and long-term adverse effects in the mother and child. Many African countries, including Nigeria are experiencing a double burden of under- and over-nutrition with rising levels of obesity  particularly in women.

Objectives: The study aims to determine the knowledge and risk perception of the complications of maternal obesity during pregnancy  among women attending antenatal clinic at Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital (ABUTH), Shika, Zaria.

Methodology: Across-sectional descriptive study was conducted among 154 pregnant women attending antenatal clinic in ABUTH, Shika. Respondents were selected via a multi-stage sampling technique. Data was collected with an interviewer-administered questionnaire.  Analysis was done with IBM SPSS Statistics version 20 and results were presented in frequency tables. Appropriate tests of association  were done, and the level of statistical significance was set at 0.05.

Results: The mean age of respondents was 28.5 ± 3.66 years. Of the 154  respondents, 69.5% and 51.9% were aware that excess weight could adversely affect mother and baby respectively causing  complications such as hypertension (58.4%), gestational diabetes (52.6%). Only 13% of the respondents had a good knowledge score.  Majority (83.8%) had positive perception of excess weight gain in pregnancy. There was a statistically significant relationship between  knowledge score and perception of complications of maternal obesity (p =0.001).

Conclusion: Half of the respondents (51.9%) had a fair  level of knowledge regarding the consequences of obesity on maternal health. Due to the low proportion with good knowledge,  generation of awareness on consequences of obesity on reproductive health is required to bring about behavioural change regarding  obesity prevention among women in this setting.