Awareness and satisfaction with antenatal care services among pregnant women in Lagos state, Nigeria

Objectives: Despite the growing interest and efforts by government to make popular use of antenatal care (ANC) services in Nigeria as recommended by the World Health Organization, high level of infant and maternal mortality remains a major public health challenge facing the country. Dissatisfaction toward ANC services among pregnant women may be attributed to low level of awareness. This study assessed the level of awareness and satisfaction of ANC services among pregnant women in Lagos state, Nigeria. Material and Methods: The study adopted a survey research design. A multistage sampling technique was utilized to recruit participants for this study. A validated questionnaire was used for data collection and data were analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistics. Ethical approval was obtained from Babcock University Health Research Ethics Committee with approval no: BUHREC543/17. Approval was also obtained from health service commission and in the six general hospitals used for the study. Informed consent was taken and respondents were reassured of the privacy and confidentiality of the information obtained. Results: The results showed that most of the respondents (85.6%) were in their reproductive years, that is, ages 23­37. The results showed that the level of awareness had a significant influence on pregnant women's satisfaction with the services (ß = 0.460, F(1,1313) = 351.499, R2 = 0.211, P < 0.05). The level of awareness of ANC services was high (M = 4.31, SD = 1.01) on a scale of 5. Conclusion: The study concluded that awareness of ANC services positively impacts pregnant women's satisfaction with the services in Lagos state. Efforts should be made to improve the level of awareness of pregnant mothers to achieve greater satisfaction with ANC services in Lagos state.

Awareness of the ward based outreach team and the services offered by the programme in the tshwane health district, South Africa

Background: The Ward Based Outreach Team (WBOT) is an organised team approach to a healthcare system based on theprinciples of epidemiology, primary health care, preventive medicine and health promotion. Globally, it has become a primary care response to many health challenges such as universal health coverage. The beneficiaries are community members, also referred to as households.Methods: The study assessed the awareness of the WBOT and the servicesoffered by the programme in the Tshwane health district of South Africa. This was a cross-sectional survey conducted in all seven sub-districts of the health district. The health district is further sub-divided into 150 health wards. Eighty-five health wards were randomly selected for the study. Using the sample size calculator, with a confidence interval of 5% and confidence level of 99%, the sample size of participants was 654. However, during the data collection process there was over-sampling of up to 764. Participants were recruited by convenience sampling. Data werecollected between October 12 and December 3, 2015, using a pre-piloted, structured questionnaire administered by 14 trained field workers. Results: The study obtained 6 288 responses from the 764 participants. The responses were grouped into two sections, 'Yes' and 'No'. A summary of the responses showed that the number of 'yes' responses, the number of participants who were aware of the WBOT and the services offered by the programme were higher than the number of participants who were unaware of the programme. The figures were 5 590 (88.8%) 'yes' responses and 698 (11.1%) 'no' responses.Conclusion: In summary, the awareness of the WBOT and the services offered by the programme in the Tshwane health district, South Africa is evaluated to be 88.8%