Strengthening Maternal Awareness: A Quasi-Experimental Study on TORCH Infection Prevention Education for Pregnant Women

Abstract

Background: Infections such as Toxoplasmosis, Other agents, Rubella, Cytomegalovirus, and Herpes simplex virus, referred to as TORCH, are serious threats to maternal and fetal health during pregnancy. To reduce and avert complications and adverse outcomes, appropriate awareness along with TORCH infection preventive practices is necessary amongst antenatal mothers. The purpose of this study was to assess the knowledge level of TORCH infection prevention practices particularly during pregnancy with the antenatal mothers, assess the effectiveness of the structured teaching program, assess the post-test knowledge scores of experimental and control groups after applying the interventions and compare the scores to establish a meaningful difference, and determine the impact of selected demographic variables and post-test knowledge scores.

Methodology: A quasi-experimental design with a pre-test, post-test, and control group was utilized. The study site was maternity centreof multispecialty hospitals, where 120 antenatal mothers were recruited through convenience sampling 60 to the experimental group and 60 to the control group. The data collection instruments were a socio-demographic data sheet as well as a TORCH knowledge assessment with 30 multiple choice questions. A structured teaching program was conducted for the experimental group. The knowledge assessment scores were compared using both descriptive and inferential statistics for pre-test and post-test evaluations.

Result: In the experimental group, the mean knowledge score increased from 13.28 ± 5.53 in the pre-test to 19.93 ± 3.64 in the post-test (t = -7.529, p = 0.001). The control group also showed an increase from 12.23 ± 5.29 to 19.88 ± 3.42 (t = -8.893, p = 0.001). Pre-test scores showed that 20% of mothers had poor knowledge and 53.3% had average scores; post-test scores improved with 51.7% achieving good scores and 31.7% excellent scores. In the control group, poor scores reduced from 26.7% pre-test to 0% post-test, with good and excellent scores rising to 56.7% and 28.3%, respectively. No significant associations were found between most socio-demographic variables and knowledge scores except for occupation in the control group (p = 0.001).

Conclusion: The results are anticipated to show that a systematic teaching strategy improves knowledge about the prevention of TORCH infections among pregnant women. This research highlights the importance of further education and counseling integrated into standard antenatal visits to enhance both maternal and neonatal health.