HEALTH INFORMATION NEEDS OF PREGNANT WOMEN IN EDE METROPOLIS, OSUN STATE, NIGERIA

Observation and literature revealed shows that many pregnant women experience difficulties in accessing accurate, reliable, and timely and experience many unmet health information needs. Pregnant women with no accurate and essential health information needs can have several potential consequences. These may result in health risks, complications during pregnancy, congenital disabilities, and other related health challenges. This study therefore investigated the health information needs of pregnant women in Ede metropolis, Osun State, Nigeria. It adopted a quantitative survey research design. Quantitative survey research design is justified because it allows systematic collection and statistical analysis of numerical data from a large population, enabling the identification of patterns, relationships, and generalizable findings. A self-assessed structured questionnaire was developed by the researchers to collect data from the respondents. The population for the study consists of all the pregnant women in the State Hospital Ede metropolis in Osun State. The researchers developed a self-assessed structured questionnaire to collect data from the respondents. Preliminary investigation of the hospital and the health records revealed that the hospital sees an average of 200 pregnant women per week. Therefore, the population of the study is 200 pregnant women. The convenience sampling techniques were adopted and a total of 128 respondents participated and completed the questionnaire. The findings show that all the pregnant women need health information including environmental cleanliness, immunisation, disease prevention and control, personal care, and baby care. The study also shows that pregnant women primarily relied on doctors, nurses, and prenatal health education classes as their key sources of health information during pregnancy. The findings finally show that pregnant women encountered several challenges in accessing vital health information during pregnancy which include financial difficulty, lack of awareness of the existence of information, lack of time, lack of access to mobile phones and ignorance from the pregnant women. The study concluded with the importance of providing comprehensive health information to pregnant women at State Hospital Ede, Osun State. The study recommended among others the provision of comprehensive and timely health information at State Hospital Ede, Osun State, Nigeria.