MATERNAL HEALTH LITERACY AND ASSOCIATED FACTORS AMONG PREGNANT WOMEN IN KOMBOLCHA DISTRICT, EAST HARARGHE ZONE, OROMIA REGION, EASTERN ETHIOPIA

Abstract

Background: Maternal health literacy is recently more recognized as a crucial areaof priority for women's reproductive health to reduce disparities, and mortality, and achieveimproved health outcomes. Despite the growing awareness of the significance of maternal health literacy in maternal well-being, there is a lack of information on the magnitude and factors associated with maternal health literacy in the study area. Objective: The study aimed to assess the level of maternal health literacy and its influencing factors among pregnant women in Kombolcha District, East Hararghe Zone, Ethiopia. Methods: The community-based cross-sectional study was conducted in Kombolcha district, from February 01 to 30, 2024. A total of 420 pregnant women were enrolled in this study and a simplerandom sampling technique was used to recruit a sample size using a list of pregnant women in Health posts. To assure the quality of data properly designed data collection tools were used, which were adopted from Home Based Life-Saving Skills evaluation tool that is found to be reliable and had an acceptable validity in sub-Saharan countries was prepared in English and translated to Afaan Oromo to collect primary data. The data was cleaned and entered into EpiData version 3.1 and analyzed using Stata version 15. Bi-variable and multi-variable regression analyses were performed to see the factors associated with the outcome variable. Statistical significance was declared with 95% CI and p<0.05. Result: The overall magnitude of maternal health literacy was 55.47% (95%CI:50,60). Maternal health literacy was significantly associated with pregnant women‘s being enrolled in CBHI(AOR= 0.36, 95%CI (0.182,0.744), availability of health extension workers (HEW) (AOR = 0.41, 95% CI (0.265,0.715), being graduated as Model House Hold (MHH) (AOR = 0.43, 95% CI (0.202,0.677). Conclusion: The study indicates that more than half of the pregnant women exhibited adequate health literacy,which also highlights a concerning gap with almost half of pregnant women lacking maternal health literacy.Factors such as enrollment in community-based health insurance (CBHI), availability of health extension workers (HEW), and being graduated as a model household (MHH) were significantly associated with maternal health literacy levels. Targeted interventions to increase access to health extension workers, promote enrollment in community-based health insurance and empower pregnant women as model households can effectively improve maternal health literacy levels and narrow the identified gap