Abstract
BACKGROUND: Maternal health literacy (MHL) is the ability of mothers to obtain, interpret, appraise, and apply women and child health information that contributes to a reduction in mortality among mothers and children. This is an important concern since a woman's health during pregnancy may be her first interaction with the healthcare system, and a woman's comprehension of health information has a direct impact on her unborn child's growth throughout the process of conception. AIM: Assess the degree of maternal health literacy and related factors in women's and children's health care among mothers whose children have received basic immunizations at the public healthcare facilities in Ilu Abba Boor. METHODS AND MATERIALS: A cross-sectional study was carried out in the facility between December 2021 and January 2022. Investigators trained supervisors and data collectors for five days before data collection. Through basic random sampling, 411 mothers whose children had received the minimum set of vaccinations from health facilities in the Ilu Ababor zone of Oromia, Ethiopia, were chosen. Face-to-face interviews were used to gather the data, which were then imported into Epidata 4.1 and exported to SPSS. The factors associated with maternal health literacy in maternal and child healthcare were identified through the application of descriptive statistics, bivariate analysis, and multivariable logistic regression analyses. The findings are displayed in the form of graphs, tables, and figures. RESULTS: This study had a 100% response rate when 411 participants were invited to participate. The mean maternal health literacy score was 28.5±10.3. Most of the women (293 [71.3%]) had inadequate health literacy levels while 118 (28.7%) had adequate. The multivariate analysis's findings indicated that the rate of adequate maternal health literacy was 12.2 times higher among urban women than among rural ones (AOR=12.2 [5.34, 24.48]). Women who gave birth vaginally were 0.24 times less likely to have adequate maternal health literacy than women who had a caesarean section (AOR=0.24 [0.112, 0.503]). Mothers who had four or more prenatal care follow-ups were found to have sufficient maternal health literacy higher than those who had just one (AOR=0.23[0.095, 0.556]), two (AOR=0.26[0.138, 0.307]), and three times (0.14{0.108, 0.167]) antenatal care contacts. DISCUSSION AND RECOMMENDATION: This study shows that inadequate maternal health literacy affects the healthcare of mothers and children. Given the significance of health literacy for women's health, national health authorities ought to develop more educational initiatives aimed at raising health literacy rates and empowering women who are of reproductive age.