Cheru Kore Sifir* and Tsigereda Lemma Biru
Introduction: During pregnancy, malaria causes life threatening outcomes to the mother, the fetus, and the new-born. In Sub-Saharan African countries, including Ethiopia, malaria in pregnancy is a major public health threat which results in significant morbidities and mortalities among pregnant women and their fetuses. Therefore, the aim of this study is to assess the magnitude of malaria and associated factors among pregnant women attending antenatal care at public health facilities in Gurage Zone, Ethiopia, to generate information that will help in malaria prevention, control, and treatment particularly among pregnant women.
Method: A facility-based cross-sectional study was conducted from March to May 2023 in Gurage Zone, Northwest Ethiopia. A multi-stage sampling technique was used to select 422 pregnant women from public health facilities. Pregnant women of all gravidities and gestations was interviewed from February to March 2023 using simple random sampling method with structured questionnaires to obtain socio-demographic, obstetric, clinical and knowledge profiles through face-to-face interview and malaria diagnosis confirmation is done on microscope-based laboratory techniques, (standard diagnostics, inc., Ethiopia). Pregnant women who test positive for malaria was treated for malaria with artemisinin combination therapies (ACTs) as per national guidelines. The collected data was analyzed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 25. Logistic regression uses to assess factors associated with malaria. Adjusted odds ratio with 95% confidence interval is calculated and P-value < 0.05 is considered statistically significant. The level of statistical significance is declared at a p-value less than or equal to 0.05.
Result: Overall, 422 pregnant women comprising out of those 328(77.7%) rural and 94(22.2%) urban dwellers participated in the study. The overall magnitude of malaria was 91(21.6%). The odds of malaria infection were 1.61 times higher among pregnant women who did not utilize ITN compared to their counterparts (AOR = 1.61, 95% CI: 0.76, 3.38).
Conclusion and recommendation: The think about found that the in general greatness of malaria sickness among pregnant ladies within the ponder region was found to be tall (21.6%). Area health offices ought to give broad-scale health instruction and mindfulness building ventures to the pregnant ladies communities with respect to cleaning their environment and expelling stagnant water pools as to anticipate mosquito plenitude and thus diminish jungle fever frequency.
Published Date: 2023-10-31; Received Date: 2023-10-05
