Self-reported compliance with routine prenatal medications by pregnant women in a tertiary hospital in Enugu State, Nigeria

INTRODUCTION: Compliance to routine antenatal medications increases a woman’s chances of achieving a normal pregnancy and having a healthy baby. However, non-compliance is a commonly encountered problem in developing countries including Nigeria. This study investigated compliance to routine antenatal medications as reported by pregnant women receiving antenatal care in a tertiary hospital in Enugu State, Nigeria. METHODS: A cross-sectional descriptive survey research design was adopted for the study while simple random sampling technique was used to select the 354 pregnant women at Enugu state teaching hospital. A validated structured questionnaire (α=0.72) was utilized for data collection. Analysis of data involved descriptive and inferential statistics. RESULTS: Only 32% of pregnant women had a good compliance to their routine antenatal drugs while forgetfulness (27.2%) and vomiting as a side effect of the drug (25.7%) were the major barriers to compliance with routine drugs. Furthermore, there was a statistically significant association between respondents’ compliance with antenatal drugs and number of children as well as level of income (p<0.001). No statistically significant association was found between education level and compliance. CONCLUSIONS: Nurses and other health workers should support pregnant women to set reminders for taking their medications and prescribe alternative dosage forms or products that will not induce vomiting. In addition, antenatal education should emphasize the benefits of adherence to routine taking of medications at every stage of pregnancy and the possible negative consequences of non-compliance.