Knowledge, Attitude and Practice on Maternal Sepsis Among Mothers in Kuantan, Pahang, Malaysia

Maternal sepsis is one of the main contributors to maternal mortality worldwide. Malaysia has the least number of cases associated with maternal sepsis in 2015. However, the number of cases has increase by eight cases in 2017 as stated by the Family Health Development Division Ministry of Health Malaysia. Hence, this study aimed to investigate the knowledge, attitude and practice on maternal sepsis and its associated factors among mothers in Kuantan,Pahang.  A cross sectional study design with convenience sampling were applied to 100 respondents among mothers based on specific criteria. From the findings, the majority of the mothers in Kuantan has good level of knowledge (52%), whereas the level of attitude was moderate (85%). In addition, the finding shows that the level of practice among mothers in Kuantan was excellent (76%). Maternal knowledge significantly associated with the age of the mother with p = 0.007. There was a significant correlation between knowledge and attitude    (r = 0.433, p = less than 0.001) and knowledge with practice (r = 0.236, p = 0.018). While attitude and practice (r = 0.194, p = 0.053) showed no significant correlation. This study shows that the mothers in Kuantan, Pahang had good level of knowledge, moderate attitude towards maternal sepsis and excellent practice in preventing maternal sepsis. Continues education on maternal sepsis and other risk factors of maternal mortality should be done especially to young mothers in order to control and reduce the the rates of maternal mortality. Furthermore, this can be a benchmark initiative to achieve the targets in reducing maternal mortality rate in Malaysia as outlined under sustainable development goals 3 (SDG3).