Awareness and Knowledge of Birth Defects among Antenatal Clinic Attendees at the University College Hospital, Ibadan, South-West, Nigeria.

BACKGROUND

The burden of birth defects is disproportionately higher in developing countries.

OBJECTIVES

This study assessed the knowledge of risk factors and prevention of birth defects among ante-natal clinic attendees at the University College Hospital, Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria.

METHODS

This was a cross-sectional study among 415 mothers who presented at the antenatal clinic. A semi-structured questionnaire was used to obtain information on respondents' socio-demographic profile, pregnancy, birth history, knowledge on prevention and risk factors for birth defects. Descriptive statistics was used to present results, independent t-test and ANOVA were used to determine the factors associated with mean of overall knowledge of birth defects. Test statistics was done at a 5% level of statistical significance.

RESULTS

The mean age of the women was 31.7 ± 4.8 years. Overall, 93 (22.4%) of the women were above 35 years, 118 (29.9%) were skilled workers and 343 (84.9%) had tertiary education. More than half (219, 52.8%) of the respondents had good knowledge of birth defects (56.4% had good knowledge of prevention and 66.0% had good knowledge of risk factors). Antenatal clinic attendees in their first trimester had higher mean overall knowledge score (8.3 ± 4.9) compared to those in second (7.9 ± 4.5) and third (7.9 ± 4.9) trimesters but this was not statistically significant (p=0.873). However, respondents in skilled/ semi-skilled occupation (8.62) had a significantly higher mean knowledge score compared with those in unskilled occupation/ unemployed (7.33) (p=0.005).

CONCLUSION

Knowledge of birth defects is relatively low among women. To reduce the occurrence and severity of birth defects, there is a need to educate mothers on the knowledge, prevention and importance of screening for birth defects.