“Impact of an Information Booklet on Knowledge Regarding the Prevention of Urinary Tract Infection for Antenatal Women in a Selected Antenatal Clinic”

Abstract

Background of study: For women, pregnancy is a crucial period. There is an increased risk that pregnant women will develop urinary tract infections (UTIs) The hormonal changes that occur during pregnancy further increase the risk for both pregnancy and non-pregnancy related infections due to the physiological immune suppression associated with the action of human chorionic gonadotropin and prolactin.

Pregnancy-related changes in the immune system, urinary tract physiology and anatomy, and other factors raise the prevalence of ASB and can occasionally result in symptomatic infection, causing substantial risks to the mother and foetus. The risk of UTI in pregnant women may be increased by factors such as aging, parity, diabetes, sickle cell anaemia, prior UTIs, urinary tract infections, and immunological deficiencies.

Methodology: For this study, a pre-experimental one-group pre-test post-test design was adopted to assess the impact of an information booklet on knowledge regarding the prevention of urinary tract infection among antenatal women. A total of 50 antenatal women from a selected antenatal clinic were selected using a non-probability purposive sampling technique. Data were collected using a structured knowledge questionnaire. The intervention included providing an information booklet on prevention of urinary tract infection. The data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics such as mean, standard deviation, paired t-test, and chi-square test.

Result: The study revealed that prior to the booklet information, the majority of antenatal women (50%) had poor knowledge regarding prevention of Urinary Tract Infection during pregnancy, while 42% had average knowledge, and only 8% demonstrated good knowledge. Following the intervention, post-test results indicated a marked improvement, with 48% of participants achieving good knowledge and 44% demonstrating average knowledge; 8%poor knowledge category. The effectiveness of the booklet information was statistically significant. The mean pre-test score was 9.5(SD = 3.83), whereas the post-test mean score increased to15.9 (SD = 3.16). A paired t-test yielded a value of 9.69 with a p-value of 0.000, indicating a highly significant improvement in knowledge (p < 0.05). Therefore, the null hypothesis (H₀) was rejected and the alternative hypothesis (H₁) accepted.