Awareness of Causes and Preventive Measures of Neonatal Tetanus among Childbearing Mothers in Isiala Ngwa South Local Government Area, Abia State

Abstract

Neonatal tetanus remains an important public health problem in many parts of the world especially in the low income countries. This study investigated awareness of causes and preventive measures of neonatal tetanus among childbearing mothers in Isiala Ngwa South LGA of Abia State. Four research questions and two null hypotheses guided the study. The study adopted a cross-sectional survey research design. The population for the study consisted of 7,000 CBMs in Isiala Ngwa South LGA, Abia State. A validated questionnaire titled “Awareness of causes and Preventive Measures of Neonatal Tetanus Questionnaire (ACPMNNTQ)” was used as instrument for data collection. Descriptive statistics of frequencies, percentages and chi-squared test were used for data analysis. Results showed that childbearing mothers possessed average awareness of causes (52.6%) and preventive measures (56.7%) of neonatal tetanus. The childbearing mothers with primary education possessed very low awareness (26.9%) and low awareness (30.7%) on causes and preventive measure of neonatal tetanus, those with secondary education possessed high awareness (60.5% and very high awareness (83.1%) while those with tertiary education possessed average awareness (55.0%) and high awareness (77.3%) on outcome variables. Furthermore, the results revealed that there were significant differences in the awareness of causes and preventive measures of neonatal tetanus among childbearing mothers based on level of education. The author recommended among others that health care workers should routinely assess tetanus toxoid status of all female patients of a reproductive age and vaccinate them according to Ministry of Health Vaccination guidelines.