Understanding stakeholder's mental models for the reduction of maternal mortality rates in Nigeria

Nigeria is one of the countries with the highest maternal mortality rates in Sub-Saharan Africa, continuing to perform badly in the achievement of the recently reached Millennium Development Goal (MDG5) deadline. While there... [ view full abstract ]

Nigeria is one of the countries with the highest maternal mortality rates in Sub-Saharan Africa, continuing to perform badly in the achievement of the recently reached Millennium Development Goal (MDG5) deadline. While there is a great deal of commonly recognized and accepted knowledge about the causes of maternal mortality, and solutions to many of the known issues, considerable differences of perception persist within different stakeholder groups about how best to tackle the issue. These differences are, at least in part, due to the different mental models, goals and objectives that exist among lay people and the expert /managerial elite. The objectives of this research are to bridge the knowledge gap between these different stakeholders, to identify risk factors and to improve communication of these risks. This is part of a wider mental models study aimed at improving risk communication and the current paper presents a comparison of expert and lay knowledge and interpretations of the important components of the problem.

The process of understanding different stakeholder mental models began by the construction of an expert mental model through extensive literature review and consultation with experts from academia, non-governmental agencies and hospitals. This model was used for preliminary evaluation of the extent and accuracy of lay perceptions among the target group (women of childbearing age (15-49) in Rivers State located in the southern region of Nigeria) elicited through semi-structured interviews.

Interviews were transcribed and analysed to evaluate common themes that were used to model lay perceptions for comparison to the expert mental model. The emergent themes will be presented and discussed in the context of the identification of important gaps in knowledge and misperceptions. The results will be evaluated in the light of insights into ways that practical measures to improve risk communication may be implemented to address barriers that prevent women accessing appropriate healthcare and thereby reduce the number of maternal deaths.