RESUMO
Background: Antenatal and post natal care are important component of maternal mortality rate. Antenatal facilities provided to mothers form the base of their future outcome. The services provided to mothers are still poor in India. A proper and effective program implementation is depending on understanding of basic factors that affect maternal and child health services utilization. Considering all these facts, it is important to study the maternal health service utilization pattern among the beneficiaries living in urban area of Jabalpur and factors responsible for their under utilization. Material & Methods: A prospective study was carried out in urban area of Jabalpur district of Madhya Pradesh. Cluster sampling technique was used to select 396 Antenatal females in the 36 different clusters. Information about socio demographic factors and ANC services utilization was recorded. Results: This study showed that 50.50% of women were registered within 12 weeks of pregnancy, 58.80% women received four or more antenatal visits, 23.99% women consumed hundred and more Iron Folic Acid (IFA) tablets and 96.21% received 2 doses of Tetanus Toxoid (TT) injections. Only 22.72% women had complete ANC service utilization. Conclusion: Utilization of Antenatal Care (ANC) services was poor in the urban areas of Jabalpur district even though the physical accessibility was adequate. ANC services utilization is significantly associated with level of education of mother, education of husband, occupation of mother, type of family and time of registration of pregnancy.
RESUMO
Objective: The present study was undertaken to assess the level of knowledge and practice about tetanus toxoid immunization of a group students from a public university. Materials & Methods: This cross-sectional survey was carried out on 113 female students randomly selected from Dhaka University. The interview was conducted using a structured questionnaire. Results: Mean age of the respondents was 19.7±1.2 years (mean±SD). About 90% of the respondents knew about tetanus. Regarding age groups prone to develop tetanus, 49% respondents told ‘children <1 year’, 26.5% ‘neonate’, 14.7% ‘children of 1-5 years’, 3.9% ‘children of 6-12 years’, 5.8% ‘women of 15 years and above’. Respondents showed lack of knowledge about the target group for TT vaccination. None has mentioned about the necessity of TT immunization before the start of reproductive life. Regarding number of dose for complete vaccination 60% respondents mentioned ‘five’, 10.9% ‘three’ and 4.9% ‘two’. Twenty two percent (22.1%) of the respondents did not know. Over one-third (34.5%) of the respondents was found to be completely immunized, 24.8% on schedule, 17.7% incompletely immunized and 23% was not at all immunized. Respondents’ source of knowledge about TT immunization was TV in 35% cases followed by health workers 24%, newspaper 16%, radio and other sources 25%. Among the nonvaccinated group 50% respondents told of their unawareness about need for vaccination against tetanus before the start of their reproductive life, 15.4% told about lack of information regarding of place and time of vaccination and 19.6% complained about inconvenience schedule and place of vaccination. Conclusions: More than two-thirds of the respondents had knowledge about tetanus toxoid immunization before the start of their reproductive life but only half of them were completely vaccinated. Mass media found to be the main source of information. So planners and policy-makers should utilize mass medium and gear up the activities of health workers to convey the correct massages regarding tetanus toxoid immunization to its clients.