Njoku, P.N, Aganbi, O.P., Ojide, R. N., Ilo, C. I. Elom N. A, Ogwuoke, A. C. & Nwankwo G.A.
Dept. of Public Health, Madonna University, Elele and Dept. of Human Kinetic and Health Education, Ebonyi State University, Abakliki.
Abstract
Pregnant women infected with STIs sometime do not meeting up with their routine antenatal checkups due to some barriers. A descriptive survey study to determine the age differences on the perceived barriers to health seeking behaviour of pregnant women infected with STIs in general hospitals in Delta State, Nigeria was carried out two research questions and one hypothesis were formulated to guide the study. The population for the study was 2,230 while the sample size for the study was 342 pregnant women who tested positive to STIs drawn from nine (9) selected general hospitals out of 38 general hospitals using multi-stage sampling technique.The instrument used for data collection was a self-structured questionnaire. Analysis of data collected was done using mean, standard deviation and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA).Findings from the study revealed that pregnant women with STIs attending general hospitals in Delta State have barriers to health care seeking behaviour. The barriers included lack of finance, high cost of health care services, inaccessibility of health care facilities, lack of information/education, low threat to pregnancy, and unfavorable previous experience. Pregnant women within the age brackets of 25-34years and 35-44years identified more barriers (seven each) than those within the age bracket of 15-24 years identified only 6 barriers. When the data were subjected to inferential statistics, it revealed no significant difference in the perceived barriers based on age.
Some recommendations were made including: public health campaign for both care givers and patients should be intensified; basic health centers should be upgraded to comprehensive health centers ;and national health insurance scheme should be repositioned to enable rural women subscribe to it.
Key Words: Age difference, Perception, Barriers, Health seeking behavior, Pregnant women with STIs