Evaluation of newborn screening educational program on knowledge, attitude and compliance among mothers / Maria Elena M. Mariano 6

Thesis (M.A.) -- Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila, 2007;A thesis presented to the faculty of the Graduate School of Health Sciences in for the partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Master of Arts in Nursing 56

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ABSTRACT: Newborn screening is an essential public health strategy that enables the early detection and management of several congenital metabolic disorders, which if left untreated, may lead to mental retardation or death. This study aimed to determine the relationship between providing a Newborn Screening educational program among prenatal and post-partum mothers and their compliance to undergo newborn screening. One group pretest-posttest quasi-experimental research was utilized by the researcher to find out the extent of the compliance of prenatal and post-partum mothers to newborn screening after an intervention through a NBS educational program personally administered by the researcher. This was conducted from August 28 to January 13, 2008 at PGH involving 126 respondents. A questionnaire was used to gather relevant data. The results of the pre-test administered on pre-natal mothers revealed that there is a high perception both in terms of knowledge on and attitude towards the Newborn Screening. During the post-partum stage, the same respondents indicated an increase in perception as the posttest showed a very high perception in terms of knowledge and relatively high perception in terms of attitude towards the NBS. The t-test score confirmed that there is significant difference between the pre and post-test in terms of knowledge and attitude. This implied that the educational program has invariably helped in improving the respondents concept and attitude towards NBS. Despite a high perception in terms of knowledge and attitude, the extent of compliance was relatively low. The respondents who did not comply to NBS replied that the primary reason for the non-compliance is financial concerns. Other reasons include death of the newborn and non-availability of Screener. Nonetheless, respondents affirmed that the education program has greatly helped correct and improve the perceptions towards NBS. There is no significant relationship between the compliance and the extent perceptions of respondents to NBS. This implies that the perception in terms of knowledge and attitude was not the sole determinant to later compliance of respondents to have the newborns screened. On the basis of the findings and conclusions, the following recommendations are offered to enhance the implementation of NBS program; the Hospital Administrator a strong administrative support is vital to increase awareness among clients. The recent inclusion of NBS fee to the Philhealth newborn package as provided in RA 9288 otherwise known as Newborn Screening Act of 2004 is seen to encourage NBS compliance among Philhealth members and dependents to adopt and implement any health education program. It is recommended to institutionalize the NBS program in the nursing practice by including the program in mothers class in OPD and OB-Gyne wards of PGH; to nursing educators, to make use of the NBS educational program that the researcher utilized in this study to increase awareness as well help in the advocacy of the newborn screening thus saving newborns in mental retardation and possible death; for future researchers, the results of this study will contribute scientific investigation in establishing different approaches to effective nursing interventions particularly with the aim of increasing compliance to Newborn Screening.

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