Prevalence and Knowledge of Eclapsia in Mezam Division

This research was conducted in Bamenda Northwest of Cameroon with the aim to understand and determine the Prevalence and Knowledge of Eclapsia in Mezam Division. Eclampsia refers to the occurrence of one or more generalized convulsions and/or coma in the setting of preeclampsia (defined as high blood pressure and excess protein in urine after 20weeks of pregnancy in a woman who previously had normal blood pressure. Out of the 102 pregnant women involved in the study, 76.5% of them live in rural areas, while 23.5% of them leave in urban areas. This difference can be explained by the fact that most of our study area was concentrated around rural women as we received a good number of them leaving in places like Bafut, Bambui, and the interior part of Mankon. In this study we realized that 55.9% of the participants are single while 33.3% of them are married. In this research the most represented age groups were 21-25 (27.4%) and 26-30 (32.5%). And the least represented age group was 46 and above with a prevalence of 5.9%. Analyzing the results of the respondents based on their levels of education, we realized that the most represented age group was
primary school with a prevalence of 47.05% and the least represented by university participants with a prevalence of 16.7%. In this study we realized that 82.4% of the participants are low-income earners while 17.6% of them are high income earners. The outcome of the participants based on ANC (antenatal care) visitation showed that 66.7% of the participants have attended ANC 1-3 times during the study period. The lower the number of ANC checks the higher the risk for a pregnant woman developing eclampsia. The high prevalence of 40.2% amongst participants with their first births was
observed at the age range 21-25.