Knowledge, Attitude and Practice of Adverse Pregnancy Outcomes Prevention among Women of Reproductive Age in Nasarawa Local Government Area, Kano State, Nigeria

Background: Adverse pregnancy outcomes continue to contribute substantially to maternal mortality as well as poor maternal and fetal health outcomes whose burden can be reduced by the initiation of preventive behaviors like the uptake of maternal health services. This continuous unacceptably high maternal mortality justifies a need for progressive research to better understand the predictors of the preventive behaviors of women towards adverse pregnancy outcomes. This study was conducted to assess levels of knowledge, attitudes about adverse pregnancy outcomes and preventive practices among women of reproductive age in Nassarawa local government area, Kano State, Nigeria. Methodology: The study was a cross-sectional descriptive study that employed a four-sectioned pretested researcher administered questionnaire to collect data on knowledge, attitude and practice of adverse pregnancy outcomes prevention among 164 consenting respondents in Kano State, Nigeria between November 2020 and December 2020. Responses were transformed and computed using SPSS version 26 to generate descriptive statistics. Regression analysis was done to test the degree of association between the predictors and practice of adverse pregnancy outcomes prevention with the level of significance set at a cut-off of p ≤ 0.05. Results: The findings showed that the majority of the respondents were between 20 - 24 years of age and had secondary educational attainment. Results further revealed that knowledge and attitude about adverse pregnancy outcomes which were both measured on 18-point scales, reported for the respondents’ mean scores of 9.46 (9.07 ± 9.85) and 10.72 (9.79 ± 10.62) respectively. The practice of adverse pregnancy outcomes prevention when assessed on a 15-point scale shows that respondents scored a mean of 7.42 ± 8.30 which denotes 53.4% of the level of prevention practice anticipated from the respondents. The study also showed a significant positive association between the level of knowledge (p = 0.010), attitude (p < 0.001) and prevention practice of adverse pregnancy outcomes. Conclusions: The findings reported an average but inadequate knowledge and neutral attitude that predicted unsatisfactory adverse pregnancy outcomes prevention practices among the examined reproductive-aged women, which calls for targeted health education on adverse pregnancy outcomes within the community in order to inform better prevention practices.