KNOWLEDGE AND PRACTICE OF BREAST HYGIENE AMONG NURSING MOTHERS ATTENDING PRIMARY HEALTH CARE CENTRES IN IBADAN SOUTH EAST LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA, OYO STATE

Abstract

Breast hygiene is one of the important information provided for nursing mothers to help them take informed action as it concerns their breast. Despite the importance of breast hygiene to health, many nursing mothers do not understand the basic steps in breast hygiene. Previous studies have focused on breast self-examination and only few studies considered issue of breast hygiene. This study investigated the knowledge and practice of breast hygiene among nursing mothers attending Primary Health Care (PHC) Center in Ibadan South East Local Government Area, (IBSELGA) Oyo State, Nigeria. A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted among 425 randomly selected consenting nursing mother in IBSELGA. A three- stage sampling techniques involving random selection of 4 Primary Health Care Centres, proportionate and random selection of the final respondents. A pre-tested semi-structured interviewer-administered questionnaire was used for data collection which comprised of socio-demographics characteristics, knowledge, perception, practice and challenges related to breast hygiene. Knowledge was assessed on a 16-point scale and scores of 0-7, >7-11 and 11 and above were categorised as poor, fair and good knowledge of breast hygiene respectively. Perception was assessed on a 17-point scale and scores ≥9 were regarded as positive perception. Practice was assessed on a 9-point scale and scores ≥5 were categorised as good practice. Descriptive statistics and Chi-square test were used for data analysis with the level of significance set at p= 0.05 Age of respondents was 30.8 ± 5.8 years, (90.1%) were Yoruba. More than half (52.5%) were Christian and (85.2%) were married. Knowledge score was 8.4 ± 2.9 and majority (50.4%) had poor knowledge, (33.6%) had fair knowledge, while (16.0%) had good knowledge of breast hygiene. Some (22.8%) could correctly mention two ways of keeping the breast hygienic while only few (27.5%) could correctly mention two importance of breast hygiene to the infant. Perception scores was 11.5 ± 2.9 and respondents with negative and positive perception towards breast hygiene were (16.2%) and (83.8%) respectively. Some (33.2%) stated that breast infection is common among older women and (45.2%) perceived that they could never have breast infection. Practice scores was 5.3 ± 1.5 and only (44.2%) had good practice, while (55.8%) had poor practice of breast hygiene. Majority (62.6%) admitted that they don’t wash their breast every day when bathing. Most (68.2%) reported

that they do report any abnormal sign on their breast to their doctors. Some of the challenges related to breast hygiene included financial status (17.2%), and busy schedule (20.7%), and inadequate information (35.8%). There was also a significant relationship between the level of education, age and occupation of the respondents and knowledge of breast hygiene. The knowledge and practice of breast hygiene was low among nursing mothers in the study area. Health education strategies such as enlightenment campaign and awareness would be useful to address and improve the knowledge of breast hygiene among nursing mothers attending primary health care centres.