Knowledge And Acceptability of Group Antenatal Care Among Antenatal Care Providers in Zaria, Kaduna State, Nigeria

Abstract

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Antenatal care (ANC) is one of the strategies aimed at addressing maternal mortality in developing countries. Despite the importance of ANC, its utilization remains low in our environment. The content of the visits and coverage of essential interventions have also been shown to be of inadequate quality. Group antenatal care (GANC) is a new, innovative and alternative evidence based ANC model that has the potential to improve the quality and utilization of ANC.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of the study was to assess the knowledge and acceptability of GANC among ANC providers in Zaria, Kaduna state, Nigeria.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: The study was a cross-sectional descriptive study that was conducted between January 2021 and March 2021. Respondents were ANC providers from Tertiary, Secondary and Primary health care centres within Sabon Gari Local Government, Zaria. The health care centres were selected using multistage stratified sampling technique and disproportionate sampling allocation was used for sample size allocation for each centre. Ethical approval was obtained from Ethical Clearance Committee of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria and Kaduna State Ministry of Health. Data was collected using a self-administered pretested questionnaire and analyzed using SPSS version 25

RESULTS: The mean age of respondents was 34.4 years (SD=7.0).  Of the total respondents, 76.6% were aware of GANC and the most known type of GANC was Centeringpregnancy. Knowledge of GANC was found to be poor in 31.3% of respondents and only 28.1% had excellent knowledge score. Those with higher knowledge score were more likely to accept GANC (p value <0.001). Antenatal providers from Primary and Secondary health care were found to have more knowledge regarding GANC than those in Tertiary center (p value<0.001). Majority accepted GANC (88.3%) and were willing to participate in its implementation.

CONCLUSION: The knowledge regarding GANC was found to be poor in this study. It was however found to be an acceptable alternative to the traditional antenatal care among Antenatal providers as majority were willing to participate in its implementation.

KEYWORDS: group antenatal care, antenatal providers, knowledge, acceptability.