Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Comparative Study
. 2013 Jul 11:13:146.
doi: 10.1186/1471-2393-13-146.

Health and nutrition knowledge, attitudes and practices of pregnant women attending and not-attending ANC clinics in Western Kenya: a cross-sectional analysis

Nandita Perumal  1 , Donald C Cole, Hermann Z Ouédraogo, Kirimi Sindi, Cornelia Loechl, Jan Low, Carol Levin, Christine Kiria, Jaameeta Kurji, Mary Oyunga
Affiliations
Comparative Study

Health and nutrition knowledge, attitudes and practices of pregnant women attending and not-attending ANC clinics in Western Kenya: a cross-sectional analysis

Nandita Perumal et al. BMC Pregnancy Childbirth. .

Abstract

Background: Antenatal care (ANC) is a key strategy to decreasing maternal mortality in low-resource settings. ANC clinics provide resources to improve nutrition and health knowledge and promote preventive health practices. We sought to compare the knowledge, attitude and practices (KAP) among women seeking and not-seeking ANC in rural Kenya.

Methods: Data from a community-based cross-sectional survey conducted in Western Province, Kenya were used. Nutrition knowledge (NKS), health knowledge (HKS), attitude score (AS), and dietary diversity score (DDS) were constructed indices. χ2 test and Student's t-test were used to compare proportions and means, respectively, to assess the difference in KAP among pregnant women attending and not-attending ANC clinics. Multiple regression analyses were used to assess the impact of the number of ANC visits (none, <4, ≥4) on knowledge and practice scores, adjusting for maternal socio-demographic confounders, such as age, gestational age, education level and household wealth index.

Results: Among the 979 pregnant women in the survey, 59% had attended ANC clinics while 39% had not. The mean (±SD) NKS was 4.6 (1.9) out of 11, HKS was 6.2 (1.7) out of 12, DDS was 4.9 (1.4) out of 12, and AS was 7.4 (2.2) out of 10. Nutrition knowledge, attitudes, and DDS were not significantly different between ANC clinic attending and non-attending women. Among women who attended ANC clinics, 82.6% received malaria and/or antihelmintic treatment, compared to 29.6% of ANC clinic non-attendees. Higher number of ANC clinic visits and higher maternal education level were significantly positively associated with maternal health knowledge.

Conclusions: Substantial opportunities exist for antenatal KAP improvement among women in Western Kenya, some of which could occur with greater ANC attendance. Further research is needed to understand multi-level factors that may affect maternal knowledge and practices.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Conceptual model.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Millennium Development Goals. Improve maternal health. [ http://www.unicef.org/mdg/index_maternalhealth.htm]
    1. Bhutta ZA, Chopra M, Axelson H, Berman P, Boerma T, Bryce J, Bustreo F, Cavagnero E, Cometto G, Daelmans B, De Francisco A, Fogstad H, Gupta N, Laski L, Lawn J, Maliqi B, Mason E, Pitt C, Requejo J, Starrs A, Victora CG, Wardlaw T. Countdown to 2015 decade report (2000–10): taking stock of maternal, newborn, and child survival. Lancet. 2010;375(9730):2032–2044. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(10)60678-2. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Standards for maternal and neonatal care. Provision of effective antenatal care. [ http://www.who.int/reproductivehealth/publications/maternal_perinatal_he...]
    1. Magadi MA, Madise NJ, Rodrigues RN. Frequency and timing of antenatal care in Kenya: explaining the variations between women of different communities. Soc Sci Med. 2000;51(4):551–561. doi: 10.1016/S0277-9536(99)00495-5. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Magadi M, Madise N, Diamond IAN. Factors associated with unfavourable birth outcomes in Kenya. J Biosoc Sci. 2001;33(2):199–225. doi: 10.1017/S0021932001001997. - DOI - PubMed

Publication types