Jaiteh, F., Dierickx, S., Gryseels, C. et al. (5 more authors) (2016) ‘Some anti-malarials are too strong for your body, they will harm you.’ Socio-cultural factors influencing pregnant women’s adherence to anti-malarial treatment in rural Gambia. Malaria Journal, 15. 195. ISSN 1475-2875
Abstract
Background
Despite declining prevalence of malaria in The Gambia, non-adherence to anti-malarial treatment still remains a challenge to control efforts. There is limited evidence on the socio-cultural factors that influence adherence to anti-malarial treatment in pregnancy. This study explored perceptions of malaria in pregnancy and their influence on adherence to anti-malarial treatment in a rural area of The Gambia.
Methods
An exploratory ethnographic study was conducted ancillary to a cluster-randomized trial on scheduled screening and treatment of malaria in pregnancy at village level in the Upper River Region of The Gambia from June to August 2014. Qualitative data were collected through interviewing and participant observation. Analysis was concurrent to data collection and carried out using NVivo 10.
Results
Although women had good bio-medical knowledge of malaria in pregnancy, adherence to anti-malarial treatment was generally perceived to be low. Pregnant women were perceived to discontinue the provided anti-malarial treatment after one or 2 days mainly due to non-recognition of symptoms, perceived ineffectiveness of the anti-malarial treatment, the perceived risks of medication and advice received from mothers-in-law.
Conclusion
Improving women’s knowledge of malaria in pregnancy is not sufficient to assure adherence to anti-malarial treatment. Addressing structural barriers such as unclear health workers’ messages about medication dosage, illness recognition, side effects of the medication and the integration of relatives, especially the mothers-in-law, in community-based programmes are additionally required.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated. |
Keywords: | Adherence; anti-malarials; pregnancy; rural Gambia |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health (Sheffield) > School of Health and Related Research (Sheffield) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 20 Jul 2016 08:53 |
Last Modified: | 20 Jul 2016 08:53 |
Published Version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12936-016-1255-0 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | BioMed Central |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1186/s12936-016-1255-0 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:101648 |