Awareness, Knowledge and Attitude towards Cleft Lip/Palate among Antenatal Attendees at the Mamprobi Polyclinic

Abstract

Background: Children with cleft lip/palate suffer major functional morbidity such as restricted maxillofacial growth, speech anomalies, swallowing and feeding difficulties, hearing impairment/or recurrent ear infections. Cleft lip/palate are generally not life-threatening, living with cleft evokes a notable health burden. Objective: To assess the awareness and knowledge of pregnant women attending Mamprobi polyclinic on cleft lip and or palate. Methods: A cross-sectional study design adopting quantitative methods in collecting data from 239 pregnant women seeking antenatal care at Mamprobi Polyclinic was used. Descriptive statistics were presented using tables and charts. Chi square test was used to assess the association between knowledge and the respondents‟ characteristics of interest as well as the association between awareness and the characteristics of respondents. Logistic regression analysis was used to model the association between knowledge and the significant characteristics. Results: The proportion of respondents who had high knowledge on cleft lip/palate was 53.7% and the proportion of those who were aware of these conditions was 37.9%. The level of education was significantly associated with level of knowledge (COR= 5.61, 95% CI: 1.67, 18.87). Of all respondents, 45.74% (102/223) believed that cleft lip/palate has no evil connotation. Also, 51.89% (110/212) of the women believed cleft lip/palate is not a condition contracted as a curse from gods; 54.72% (116/212) believed the condition is not gotten from witchcraft. Regarding attitude, 95.4% were interested in knowing more about cleft lip/palate, 79.2% would be willing to touch a child with cleft lip/palate. Conclusion: Pregnant women attending the Aantenatal clinic at the Mamprobi polyclinic had low level of knowledge about cleft lip/palate. The beliefs about cleft lip or palate were generally unfavourable while their attitude towards it was largely favourable. Pregnant women showed a low awareness of cleft lip/palate.