EFFECT OF HEALTH EDUCATION PROGRAMME ON KNOWLEDGE OF GESTATIONAL DIABETES AMONG ANTENATAL MOTHERS IN GENERAL HOSPITALS KATSINA STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

This study investigated the impact of health education on knowledge of gestational diabetes among antenatal mothers in General hospitals, Katsina State, Nigeria. Quasi experimental design was used for the study. A sample of 65 diabetic antenatal mothers were purposively selected from a total population of 281 diabetic antenatal mothers from the study area. An instrument was adopted by a researcher titled: Semi structured Knowledge questionnaire on gestational diabetes care and management (SKQGCM) was duly validated by expert and a reliability coefficient (r) of 0.82 was obtained. Null hypothesis one and two were tested using inferential statistics of analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) at 0.05 level of significance and multiple regression respectively. The findings from the research indicates that the participants in both experimental and control group were of significantly similar in the level of knowledge at pretest level. Likewise, there is significant difference between post-test mean score knowledge of gestational diabetes among the antenatal mothers in the experimental and control group in favor of experimental group (F (1, 79) = 358.602, p = 0.00). There is also a significant association between the post-test mean scores of knowledge and the demographic variables of the respondents in the experimental group F (7, 32 = 10.404, p (0.000) < 0.05. The following recommendations were drawn from the findings among others that, health care providers should incorporate structured, evidence-based educational interventions into regular antenatal care visits. These programs should focus on gestational diabetes awareness, including its risk factors, prevention, and management strategies.