Influence of Cultural Beliefs on the Utilization of Integrated Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health Services in Benue State, Nigeria

Background The maternal mortality ratio in Nigeria is high at 576 per 100,000 live births. The health policy is in favor of health advocacy programs that promote the utilization of integrated maternal newborn and child health (IMNCH) services in local primary health centers by childbearing mothers. Cultural factors, however, have been shown to limit the widespread adoption of these services. The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of cultural beliefs on the utilization of IMNCH services by child-bearing mothers (CBMs) in Benue state. Methods A community-based correlational survey research was conducted on a random sample of 1,200 CBMs. A multistage sampling technique was used to select the study participants and a pretested, structured questionnaire was used to collect data through face-to-face interviews. Only 896 copies of the distributed Integrated Maternal Newborn and Child Health Services Utilization Questionnaire (IMNCHSUQ) had complete information and were used for analysis. The collected data were managed and analyzed using SPSS version 25 (IBM Corp., Armonk, NY). Mean, standard deviation, and point-biserial correlation were used to answer the research questions while linear regression was used to test the null hypotheses at a 0.05 level of significance. Results The majority of the CBMs were married (79.7%) and unemployed (66.0%) while the predominant age group was between 15 and 24 years (42.7%). CBMs had a high level of utilization of IMNCH services (X ̅=3.30, SD=0.94); there was a positive moderate relationship between IMNCH utilization and cultural factors (rbp=.43, ρ= 0.000). Results also suggest that cultural factors were significant predictors of IMNCH services utilization in Benue State, Nigeria. Conclusion Any health education program for maternal and child health in Benue State should take cognizance of the cultural values, beliefs, and norms of the people to sustain positive ones while discouraging values and norms detrimental to the health and well-being of CBMs and their children.