Incorporating trichomonas vaginalis testing in antenatal care services: a solution to early diagnosis, management and control of infection among pregnant women in abeokuta, nigeria.

Abstract

Abstract Aims To investigate the prevalence of trichomoniasis and associated risk factors among pregnant women attending ante-natal sessions. Methods High Vaginal Swabs (HVS) were collected and analyzed microscopically from 300 randomly selected ante-natal attendees. Questionnaires were concurrently administered to investigate associated risk factors about infection. Descriptive analysis was employed using SPSS (IBM, Amonk, NY, USA) version 20.0 and associations were ascertained using Pearson chi square. Significance level was set at p≤ 0.05 Results: An overall prevalence of 10.3% was recorded. Age group 40-44(14.8%) had the highest infection while lowest infection was recorded among age group 25-29(9%). Majority of the infected patient were married 26(11%) and in their second trimester stage of pregnancy 11(11.1%). Type of toilet used and shared usage of toiletries shows significant relationship with infections among patients with (P=0.024) and (P=0.000) respectively. Occupational related prevalence also showed that traders were the most the infected 12(18.5%). Conclusion: Our findings present higher prevalence of Trichomonas vaginalis among older women of reproductive age. There is need for incorporating Trichomonas vaginalis clinical testing during antenatal care services to aid prompt diagnosis, management and control of infection. Other measures of promoting prevention such as safe hygiene practices should also be emphasized on through public enlightment programs.