KNOWLEDGE ON NUTRITION COMPONENT OF SAFE MOTHERHOOD INITIATIVE AMONG PRIMARY HEALTH CARE WORKERS IN IBADAN NIGERIA

Background and objectives: Maternal and child health is frequently under threat due to multifaceted challenges. The safe motherhood initiative (SMI) was designed to lessen the burden of maternal and child mortality with the primary health care workers (PHCW) as important stakeholders. We hypothesise that PHCW in Nigeria has sufficient knowledge about the nutrition component (NC) of SMI. This study aims to evaluate the knowledge on NC of SMI among PHCW in Nigeria. Methods: 153 PHCW (from 21 Primary Health Centres across 2 local government areas) in Ibadan Nigeria identified through multi-stage sampling completed validated semi-structured questionnaires on socio-demographic characteristics, and knowledge of PHCW was assessed using a validated 101-question knowledge scale (designed based on the NC of SMI by nutrition experts) measured on a 4-point Likert scale. Knowledge score (KS) was categories as poor (=mean KS) and good (>mean KS) and X2 test was used to evaluate the association between level education, years of experience and level of knowledge of PHCW at p 20 years of experience (77.1%) compared with PHCW with