Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice of Pregnant Mothers regarding Exercise during Pregnancy in Mothers Attending ANC at selected Health Facilities Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 2021.

Abstract

Shiferaw Negash, Lukman Yusuf, Dr. Bereket Gebru

Background: Physical activity and exercise are orchestrated bodily movements produced by the contraction of skeletal muscles, at the expense of energy expenditure, in all phases of life including pregnancy that help maintain the health of an individual. Worldwide, the rate of physical inactivity during pregnancy is highly variable and tends to be more frequented in the third trimester of pregnancy. In Ethiopia, little is known and only limited literature is available concerning the physical activity status and associated factors among pregnant women.

Objective: To asses knowledge, attitude, practice, and its associated factors regarding exercise during pregnancy in women attending antenatal care at selected health centers found in Addis Ababa, the capital city of Ethiopia.

Methods: Facility based cross-sectional study designs were used in Addis Ababa City Administration selected public health centers. The study participants were selected by using simple random sampling technique, and a total of 806 pregnant women who have ANC follow up were enrolled. The data were collected by means of structured questionnaires. The data were entered, coded and analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 25. Descriptive statistics of the collected data were performed for most variables such as socio-demographic, obstetric and health behavioral variables in the study using standard statistical parameters for percentage, means and standard deviation. To identify the factors associated with Knowledge, Attitude and Practice (KAP) as related to Antenatal Exercise (ANEx), bivariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were performed. Variables with P value < 0.025 during the bivariate analysis were included in the multivariate analysis to see the effect of confounding factors. Odds ratio with 95% confidence intervals and statistical significance of P<0.05 were considered. Inclusion criteria: All pregnant women in their third trimester and who were well informed and consenting without due coercion, inducement or harm if otherwise and having resided in Addis Ababa for the last six months.

Exclusion criteria: Those who declined to participate and did not fulfill the inclusion criteria.

Results: A total sample of 806 mothers who had ANC follow up was included in the study with a response rate of 100%. The rates of KAP of ANEx were 50.4%, 27.9% and 22.3% respectively. Among the total variables which were included in the analysis, eight variables that included age of the mothers, mother’s educational status, heard about ANEx, source of information about ANEx, home activity of mothers, those mothers who had pre-pregnancy exercises, who had poor knowledge and who had negative attitude towards ANC exercise showed positive association with KAP of ANEx among all the pregnant women.

Conclusions: The findings of this study suggest that knowledge concerning antenatal exercise is comparable and reasonably favorable; their attitude and practice of ANC exercise is low in comparison with the different recommended guidelines. However, very few Ethiopian pregnant women practice ANEx according to the usual recommended guidelines during pregnancy.

Recommendation: There is strong need for an affirmative awareness creation among pregnant women within the comprehensive ANC services, popularization and inclusion of the service providers, program managers and eventually pave the way forward for the development or adoption of a guideline for an engaging and gauged physical activity during pregnancy.

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