AWARENESS AND HEALTH SEEKING BEHAVIOUR OF PREGNANT WOMEN ABOUT PREGNANCY INDUCED HYPERTENSION IN THE TAMALE METROPOLIS

Abstract

Pregnancy induced hypertension is one of the common and serious complications encountered in pregnancy and contributes significantly to the maternal and perinatal morbidity and mortality. This study was conducted to assess the knowledge and health seeking behavior of pregnant women about pregnancy induced hypertension in the Tamale Metropolis. Descriptive cross sectional survey design was used to conduct the study with simple random sampling technique used to sample the respondents from the study area. The study employed mixed approach for data collection. In all, 200 respondents were sampled from the study area. Findings from the research revealed that knowledge level of respondents concerning pregnancy induced hypertension was high but with low awareness on identifications of signs/symptoms on PIH. From the results, majority of the respondents (70.5%) indicated that the cause of PIH is not known. From the results, there was a statistical relationship between occupational status of respondents and knowledge of causes of PIH (χ2=17.63; p ˂ 0.01). Additionally, there was a statistical relationship between educational status of respondents and preferred place of health care (χ2=8.91; p ˂ 0.05). From the analyses, 23% respondents did not think nausea and vomiting are signs/symptoms of PIH. From the analyses, majority of the respondents (57%) said they often visited the health centres whilst others visited Faith based healers and Herbalist before going to hospital. The study recommends that Faith based healers and husbands/family members should be encouraged to allow pregnant women to seek health care at health centres only.