Title : Factors associated with preeclampsia among expectant mothers attending in Hargeisa group hospital
Abstract:
The study investigated the factors associated with preeclampsia among expectant mothers attending in Hargeisa Group Hospital. Preeclampsia, is a pregnancy-specific disease defined as the occurrence of hypertension and significant proteinuria in a previously healthy woman on or after the 20th week of gestation, occurs in about 2-8% of pregnancies. The problem of the study was that there was a high prevalence according to unpublished data from the Hargeisa Group Hospital (HGH) preeclampsia cases reported are high, in 2015 out of total admission 4.4% cases were pre-eclamptic while 9 cases were passed due to preeclampsia. In 2016 out of total admission 6.2% cases suffered from preeclampsia and 5 cases were died. Therefore, the study was investigated risk factor associated with preeclampsia among expectant mothers attending in Hargeisa Group Hospital Guided by Health Belief Model (HBM), the study adopted a cross sectional survey design on simple random sample of 90 of expectant mothers. Data was collected using questionnaire in April 2017. This study assessed the awareness, medical risk factors and health seeking behavior among expectant mothers attending in Hargeisa Group Hospital. This study assessed the awareness, medical risk factors and health seeking behavior among expectant mothers attending in Hargeisa Group Hospital. The study found that expectant mothers attending in Hargeisa Group Hospital lead good awareness, χ2 (4, N=90) = 99.222, p=.000. But they had poor medical risk factors, χ2 (2, N=90) = 10.467, p=.005, and good health seeking behavior, χ2 (2, N=57) = 26.947, p=.000. The study concludes that medical risk factors is a main factor responsible for the high prevalence of preeclampsia among expectant mothers attending in Hargeisa Group Hospital. The study recommends that health care providers should give expectant mothers attending ANC unit’s information about preeclampsia through health education on signs and symptoms of preeclampsia to enable them detect and take timely and appropriate actions when they are noticed. Health care providers should they do screening on pre-eclampsia and its risk factors expectant mothers should be assessed for known risk factors. The study recommends that health seeking behavior that health care must give health promotion to expectant mothers those attending ANC. The study recommends further researches on factors associated with preeclampsia among expectant mothers attending in Hargeisa Group Hospital. No prior research is made on the factors associated with preeclampsia and is very important to document such factors which may support the development of policies and guidelines for preventing preeclampsia. In terms of awareness, it is highly needed to identify the causes of preeclampsia which will support the determination of preeclampsia among expectant mothers. It is also recommending a research on the effect of lack of enough health education to avoid preeclampsia. In order to ensure the awareness of preeclampsia among expectant will greatly contribute the efforts that lead to preeclampsia to get safer mother and child.
