Awareness of Health Seeking Behaviour of Postpartum Mental Illness Among Pregnant Women Attending Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital, Zaria Antenatal Clinic
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Date
2016
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Journal ISSN
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Publisher
Department of Health promotion and Environmental Health Education, Faculty of Education, University of Ilorin
Abstract
Mental health problems have adverse effects on a woman’s obstetrical outcome. Hence, the aim of
the study was to assess the awareness of health seeking behaviour of postpartum mental illness
among pregnant women attending Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital, Zaria antenatal clinic.
A research design of cross sectional descriptive study was used with a population of two hundred and
forty (240) consecutive pregnant women receiving antenatal care in ABUTH, Zaria. A structured, self administered questionnaire was used for data collection. Descriptive and inferential statistics were
used with SPSS version 16 to analyze the data generated at 5% level of significance. Majority of the
women, 142(59.2%), had good awareness of postpartum mental illness, 184(76.7%) of the
respondents had a poor health seeking behavior towards the disorder. There was significant
relationship found between awareness of postpartum mental illness and health seeking behavior for
the disorder. Government at all levels of health care should scale up public awareness on postpartum
mental illness with improved health education on mental healthcare centers. Also, the establishment
of mental health facilities in areas strategically close to the vast majority of the population they are
meant to serve will assist in controlling the menace of postpartum mental illness.
Description
Keywords
Awareness, Health seeking behaviour, postpartum mental illness, pregnant women.