Assessing the Impact of an Intervention on Caregivers' Awareness and Completion of Continuum of Care Among Pregnant Women.

Abstract

Background and objective: The continuum of care (CoC) is an important approach that should be prioritized for improving maternal health. The World Health Organization recommends working with individuals, families, and communities to ensure continuous care throughout pregnancy, childbirth, and the postpartum period. The purpose of this study was to assess the impact of an intervention on the awareness of the CoC among main caregivers and the completion of CoC among pregnant women.

Methods: During the COVID-19 pandemic, a community-based quasi-experimental study was conducted in two townships of the Yangon Region, including 200 pairs of pregnant women and their caregivers. The intervention focused on providing health education sessions and distributing pamphlets to caregivers in the intervention group. The study aimed to assess the awareness of main caregivers about CoC and completion of CoC among pregnant women. A key predictor variable for evaluating the outcome was receiving an intervention package by the main caregivers in the intervention. The analysis used logistic regression, including the propensity score model, and was conducted using STATA vs 15.1.

Results: The final analysis included 193 pairs. Most main caregivers were husbands: 47 were husbands in the intervention and 59 in the control group, while 24 mothers were included in both groups. The awareness of CoC for maternal health among main caregivers from the intervention group was 9.97 times higher than those from the control group (AOR = 9.97, 95% CI: 5.12 to 19.43, p < 0.001). The completion of CoC among women from the intervention group was 2.17 times higher than those from the controls (AOR = 2.17, 95% CI 1.08 to 4.37, p < 0.05). The awareness of main caregivers was found to be a significant predictor for completion of CoC.

Conclusion and global health implications: Health education intervention for main caregivers could improve CoC completion among pregnant women. It provided baseline information for further interventions at the family level for improving CoC among pregnant women in the future.