Assessment Of Level Of Awareness Of Sickle Cell Disease

This study was carried out on the assessment of level of awareness of sickle cell disease: a case study of Ilaro. The study focused on pregnant women attending antenatal in Ilaro community, Ogun state. The study adopted a descriptive cross-sectional design anda self-designed questionnairewas the research instrument used for data collection. The researcher determined the sample size of 220 respondents for the study using Taro Yamane sample size formula. From the findings, the knowledge about sickle cell disease and its causes, in this study is low (21.2%), majority of the respondents said they had never heard of sickle cell disease. Most pregnant women in Ilaro community have been exposed to secondary education but unfortunately, were not well informed with the condition of sickle cell disease in pregnancy.
The predisposing factors recognized to be responsible for sickle cell disease in pregnant women were parity (14.2%), adoption/miscarriage previously (28.1%), blood transfusion (23%), and being a sickle cell disease patient (28.3%). Increasing access to health information and quality services will greatly affect health seeking behavior and utilization of health services. The results indicated that the major challenge was finances with a response rate of 84.1%, followed by time constraint (62.3%), lack of support from family/friends (59.3%), and accessibility to ANC services (56.9%). The most valid strategy for managing sickle cell disease was that regular medical checkup is necessary during pregnancy (70.4%). The prevalence of sickle cell disease amongst the participants was high.
The parity, gestational age at booking, educational status and the birth interval are factors that were found to have affected the prevalence of sickle cell disease in this study. Therefore educating women on early antenatal booking and compliance with the use of prescribed medications (Iron Supplements, Folate and Antimalarials) should also be emphasized to reduce the problem of sickle cell diseaseand its effect on pregnancy outcome in Nigeria.

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