Abstract:

Objective: This study sort to determine the levels of predisposing and need factors of pregnant women towards health-care seeking practice in Uvwie Local Government Area, Delta State.

Methodology: This study adopted a descriptive cross-sectional survey design guided by Anderson and Newman Health-Service Utilization Theory. A 46-item semi-structured questionnaire was used to collect data from four hundred and six pregnant women by multistage and simple random sampling technique, validated at Cronbach alpha 0.826. Data collected were analyzed using IBM SPSS version 23 to compute descriptive and inferential statistics which were statistically tested at a 5% level of significance.

Results: The respondents had a health literacy mean and standard deviation score of (24.6±6.5); their perceived health need mean and standard deviation score was (19.455±4.17) and their health-care seeking practice mean and standard deviation score was (11.73±3.34). It was noted that the respondents had low scores from the determinants of health-care seeking practice among pregnant women; health literacy and perceived health need has an effect on the outcome of adequate utilization of health services during pregnancy. Also, support from family and friends can be a contributing factor.

Conclusion: The health literacy and perceived health needs of the respondents was shown to be inadequate. High health literacy and perceived health need influences health-care seeking practice among pregnant women. Health promotion interventions to include health literacy improvement strategies and its importance in the awareness of first point-of-care from trained health personnel in their health communication and implementation programs.

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