Date of Conferral

2022

Degree

Ph.D.

School

Public Health

Advisor

Richard D. Jimenez

Abstract

Intermittent preventive treatment of malaria in pregnancy (IPTp) is an intervention consisting of the full course of therapeutic antimalarial medicine administered to pregnant women during routine antenatal visits regardless of whether the woman is infected with malaria. The use of intermittent preventive treatment of malaria in pregnancy using sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine (IPTp-SP) has been reportedly low in most of the malaria endemic areas, including Uganda. The coverage of IPTp in Uganda has been estimated to be as low as 17%. An in-depth secondary data analysis using the 2016 Uganda Department of Health Services survey was conducted to understand the causal relationships between predictor variables of interest and the outcome variable – uptake of the recommended three doses of IPTp among pregnant women. Using a logistic regression model, the underlying association between maternal education, age of the mother, knowledge about malaria, frequency of antenatal care visits, socioeconomic status including household wealth status and number of cowives was measured against the outcome variable. Key independent variables including maternal education, knowledge about malaria, age of the mother and frequency of antenatal care visits were all significantly associated (p<0.05) with taking the recommended dosage of IPTp-SP during pregnancy. The number of cowives in a relationship showed no significant association (p>0.05) with taking the recommended doses of IPTp-SP during pregnancy. The study findings contribute towards positive social change for improved access to malaria prevention services and specifically IPTp-SP among pregnant women.

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