Citation, abstract and comments from me below.
CITATION: Effective use of maternal health information among pregnant women in Tanzania towards achievement of sustainable development goals
Jelly Ayungo MA, Emmanuel Frank Elia PhD
Health Information and Libraries Journal
First Published: 6 March 2025
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/hir.12568
ABSTRACT
Background
Good maternal health is essential (UN Sustainable Development Goal 3). Pregnant women need to effectively evaluate and utilize health information for proper health decision making.
Purpose
To examine the ability of pregnant women to evaluate and utilize maternal health information in the Coastal region of Tanzania (a region with high levels of maternal morbidity).
Methodology
Mixed research approach and descriptive cross-sectional design were used to collect data from 132 pregnant women and 8 nurses/midwives using questionnaires and focus group discussions as data collection methods. IBM SPSS version 21 was used to analyse quantitative data, while thematic analysis was used to analyse qualitative data.
Findings
Many of the pregnant women surveyed (64/128) had low or very low perceived abilities to evaluate maternal health information, but most women, according to health care staff, made appropriate decisions to seek help to avoid major risks. The higher the level of education of a pregnant woman, the higher, generally, her perceived evaluation skills.
Conclusion
Low ability to evaluate maternal health information affects the effective utilization of maternal health services. Collaboration between libraries and health facilities is recommended for the repackaging of information in a user-friendly format.
COMMENTS (NPW):
1. The full text of the above paper is unfortunately behind a paywall, so most of us cannot read it.
2. It's ironic that two of the leading journals on information and libraries science: HILJ and Information Development - have most if not all their content behind a paywall.
3. The lead author of the above paper is based in Tanzania, which should qualify them for a waiver of the author processing charge. The publisher (Wiley) excludes United Republic of Tanzania in its list of APC waivers:
https://authorservices.wiley.com/author-resources/Journal-Authors/open-a...
4. I have written to the lead author to see if they are aware that the article can be made open access at no cost.
Best wishes, Neil
HIFA profile: Neil Pakenham-Walsh is coordinator of HIFA (Healthcare Information For All), a global health community that brings all stakeholders together around the shared goal of universal access to reliable healthcare information. HIFA has 20,000 members in 180 countries, interacting in four languages and representing all parts of the global evidence ecosystem. HIFA is administered by Global Healthcare Information Network, a UK-based nonprofit in official relations with the World Health Organization. Email: neil@hifa.org