Description
Maternal health literacy in first-time mothers is a significant problem in Kenya. Low literacy is associated with difficulty in accessing, understanding and utilization of health information. Mothers are considered as the main decision makers on infant health information-seeking. Low health literacy in women affects knowledge on health, the ability to navigate the health care system, as well as the capacity to care for the infant. This may lead to problems that impact on the infant’s health, growth and development. Maternal health literacy is thus a powerful tool for empowering mothers to take control of their own and the infants’ health. The purpose of this study will be to assess the influence of maternal health literacy on infant health outcomes among first-time mothers. The specific objectives will be to describe the socio-demographic characteristics, assess the levels of health literacy of the first-time mothers, and evaluate the health status of their infants. The target population will be first-time mothers attending randomly sampled health facilities in Kibera slum. A list of the facilities will be obtained from the Public Health office in Kibera and used as the sampling frame. The first-time mothers will be purposely selected from the routine attendance register in the maternal and child welfare clinics of the participating institutions. The study will adopt a mixed methods approach to data collection, analysis and presentation. A standardized questionnaire with both structured and open-ended questions will be used as the tool for data collection. Quantitative data will be analyzed using SPSS version 21 statistical software, while the qualitative data will be analyzed thematically based on categories of responses from the open-ended questions using N-vivo. All ethical principles will be applied to ensure anonymity, informed consent, protection of the data and assurance of feedback.
