Compliance To Intermittent Preventive Treatment of Malaria Among Pregnant Women Attending Antenatal Clinics in Nembe Local Government Area of Bayelsa State

Pregnant women are more susceptible to malaria infection because their immune response is suppressed by human chorionic Gonadotropin (HCG) and prolactin levels which are increased during pregnancy. The purpose of this study is to examine the compliance to intermittent preventive treatment (IPT) of malaria among pregnant women attending antenatal clinics in Nembe local government area. The descriptive study design was adopted with a population which consisted of 398 pregnant women.  The sample size was 239 which was selected using the multi-stage sampling procedure. A structured questionnaire with reliability coefficient of 0.834 was used for data collection. Analysis was done with the aid of Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 27.0 using percentage, mean and chi-square at 0.05 level of significance. Findings showed that more 105 (47.50%) of the respondents had average level of knowledge of sulphadoxine-pyremethamine, about three quarter 164 (74.20%) had low level of compliance with intermittent preventive treatment of malaria. Not knowing the right time for first visit to ANC was a major factor influencing compliance to IPT with a mean value of 3.57±0.49, followed by fear of reaction with a mean value of 3.31±0.46, taking medication during pregnancy causes problem had 2.88±0.59. There was no statistically significant association between level of knowledge and compliance to IPT (= 0.4.83, df = 2, p>0.05). The study concluded that compliance to IPT among study population was poor and recommends that a more extensive campaign should be used to sensitize the pregnant women on the benefits of IPT to help increase uptake and ensure improved outcomes.

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