adherence to covid-19 preventive measures among pregnant women in nigeria: an initiative towards safe motherhood in an emerging global health priority

Background & aim: reducing the rate of covid-19 transmission and infection has remained as a major public health priority in pregnancy, while the safe motherhood initiative aims at attaining optimal maternal and new-born health, reduction in maternal mortality and morbidity. this study was conducted to assess knowledge and level of adherence towards covid-19 preventive measures as well as identifying the factors influencing the level of adherence among pregnant women in nigeria. methods: this study adopted a descriptive cross-sectional design involving 442 pregnant women who attended antenatal clinic between august 15th and september 30th, 2020 in a tertiary health facility in south west nigeria. respondents were selected through a two-stage sampling technique and answered to an interviewer-administered questionnaire. data obtained from 431 pregnant (97.5% response rate) were analyzed using spss software version 25 with descriptive and inferential statistics. results: findings showed that 31.6% of the pregnant women had good knowledge about covid-19 prevention, 48.0% had fair knowledge and 20.4% had poor knowledge. also, 78.0% had high level of adherence to covid-19 preventive measures and 14.2% moderately adhere while 7.9% had low level of adherence to covid-19 preventive measures. regression analysis revealed that high level adherence to covid-19 preventive measures was significantly associated with hausa (p=0.03, rrr=0.03, ci=0.001-0.76) and igbo ethnicity (p=0.01, rrr=0.05, 0.005-0.51), while moderate adherence was significantly associated with secondary education (p=0.04, rrr=5.25, ci= 1.06-26.18). conclusion: improving adherence to preventive measures against covid-19 among pregnant women requires advocacy that prioritize women’s education and address various forms of ethnic and cultural misconceptions about covid-19 infection.