Background Family health care (FHC) facilities are widely distributed throughout Egypt but they often seem to operate at suboptimal level. Therefore this study was carried out in a trial to increase the rate of utilization of FHC in rural sector of Sharkia Governorate using a social marketing campaign.
Objectives of study: To assess the rate of utilization of maternal services in FHC units in rural sector of Sharkia Governorate andto assesss the effect of social marketing campaign on utilization of health services.
Method:Design: Pre- Post interventional study. Setting:El-Sharkia Governorate, Hehya district, El-Shabraween village. Procedure:The study evaluated the utilization of maternalhealth care services in El-Shabraween unit before and after a social marketing campaign using personal interviews of 205 households and the unit records.
Results:The household results showed that: the outpatient utilization rate of the FHC unit increased by 18.5%. While records results showed a 0.5% increase in outpatient utilization.The average number of ANC visits per registered mothersincreased from 2.7 before the campaign to 3.5 during the campaign andthe percent proportion of new FP clients to total FP clients increased from 8.7% to 11.1% after the campaign.
Conclusion and Recommendation: Social marketing can improve maternal health care utilization in rural sector, so it's recommended to disseminate the marketing materials on a wider scale to attract more customers and improve the primary health care utilization.