Epidemiological Profile and baseline characteristics of pregnant women attending antenatal clinics in malaria endemic communities within Ogun State Southwestern Nigeria

Background Nigeria has one of the highest maternal mortality rates (MMR) worldwide, which is largely due to complications during pregnancy, delivery, and the postpartum period. Focused antennal clinic (ANC) visits are pivoted to reduce MMR. This study provides detailed baseline and demographic information of pregnant women from a large malaria in pregnancy study. Methods Pregnant women of 16–29 weeks gestation receiving care at our study sites were enrolled. At enrolment, the following data were collected: baseline demographic data (age, weight, educational status, ethnicity, and use of malaria preventive measures), obstetric information (gravidity, parity, history of adverse pregnancy outcomes [APOCs] and surgeries), laboratory investigations (haemoglobin levels, blood group, genotype, proteinuria, and glycosuria), and malaria parasitology evaluation. Data were analysed using Stata 17® and Microsoft Excel 2021®. Results A total of 520 pregnant women were enrolled, with an average age of 28.8 years and gestational age of 22 weeks. More participants had tertiary education and were of Yoruba heritage. Obstetric information revealed that 165 (32.0%) of the women were primigravidae, whereas 42.1% of the women had had more than 2 pregnancies. Half (178) of the women who were pregnant previously reported having at least one APOC, with miscarriage being the most prominent, and 101 had undergone previous surgical procedures. The prevalence of anaemia, proteinuria, and glucosuria were 62.3%, 13%, and 3.5%, respectively. Malaria positivity at enrolment was 27.3% (142), with 71.1% of the diagnosed cases being asymptomatic, whereas 28.9% were symptomatic. There was poor utilisation of malaria preventive measures (insecticide treated nets, insecticide sprays, and indoor residue spraying) with only 1 participant using all three methods and 41.2% using none. Conclusion Epidemiological data obtained from this study revealed that participants had high anaemia, previous APOC, high malaria parasite positivity, and low utilisation of malaria preventive measures. These may be strong indicators of why Nigeria has a very high MMR.