Need Assessment for Health Education Service Provision on Maternal Depression Among Primary Health Care Service Providers

Abstract

Maternal depression is gradually becoming a prevailing condition among women of reproductive age in Nigeria but there are little efforts towards addressing this problem. Need assessment for health education service provision on maternal depression therefore becomes necessary. Hence, this study assessed the needs of Primary Health Care (PHC) workers regarding the provision of routine health talk on maternal depression. This study was descriptive in design and it adopted a mixed method. Four Key Informant Interviews (KII) and a survey which involved 100 Health Workers (HWs) were carried out. KII participants were purposively selected from the 4 LGAs where volunteers were found and the 100 HWs were conveniently selected from all the Comprehensive Clinics (CCs) in the 5 LGAs. A KII guide and structured questionnaire were used to collect data and data were analyzed thematically, with descriptive statistics and chi-square. The mean age of the key informant’s interviewees was 54±6.1years and the mean age of the survey respondents was 42±5.2 years. The interviewees identified HWs’ inability to communicate maternal depression to the service users in appropriate local terms and non-availability of Information, Education and Communication (IEC) materials as barriers to giving health talk on maternal depression. Survey respondents identified needs with a significant difference across cadres. Eighty-three (88.3%) identified training, education aid materials 61.7%; p<0.05, maternal depression health education guide 27.7%; p<0.05 and need for more staff 22.3%. Training, need for more staff and non-availability of maternal depression targeted educational materials were the primary identified needs.