Volume : 2, Issue : 1, January - 2013

A Study on Health Education as Intervention Tool for Grass Root Level Antenatal Care–Givers in Ahmedabad

Dr. Margi Patel, Mr. Shalin Shah, Dr. Sonal Parikh

Abstract :

Introduction: Most of the developing nations are victims of poor quality health care meted out by insufficiently knowledgeable and trained health–workers. Current study tests the effectiveness of health education intervention on knowledge about proper antenatal care of grass–root level health workers in Ahmedabad, India. Methodology: The study was carried out on 239 Link Workers (LWs – urban health workers), evaluation done by pre–tested semi–open questionnaire, pre and post health education given be audio–visual aids. Results were drawn by Z–values and probability with an increase in mean score of each question. Results: Knowledge about weight gain recorded the highest increase (266.67%), followed by that in personal care (83%). Increase of 48.96% and 54% was recorded in knowledge about warning signs and high–risk pregnancy respectively, while 37.6% and 51.52% increase in correction of misbeliefs and postures respectively. A significant rise in awareness about lab. tests done in Urban Health Centre (51.79%) and nutrition (26%) was noted. The overall increase in mean score was about 20%. Conclusion: This study shows a positive effect on the knowledge increase of LWs after health education who otherwise had insufficient comprehension about antenatal care. More interactive training programs need to be organized periodically to ing about sustained and complete knowledge. Several such studies at large scale need to be carried out to ascertain further policies.