Spatial Variation of the Knowledge, Awareness and Practice of Vital Registration in the Federal Capital Territory, F.C.T. Abuja

The demographic indicators of quality of life involves formal recording of vital events such as births, deaths, marriages, divorce, migration. The aim of the study is to assess the level of awareness, knowledge and practice of vital registration in the FCT, Nigeria. The specific objective of this study was to ascertain the spatial variation in the level of awareness and knowledge and practice of vital registration activities in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja as well as produce a spatial variation Map of the knowledge awareness and practice and level of compliance of vital registration of events in the study area. The data on knowledge, practice and awareness of vital registration was collected using questionnaires on the Kobotool box. The data was exported to statistical package for social science version 12.0 for further analysis. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyse the data. Descriptive statistics were used to describe the characteristics of respondents using frequency distribution and percentages. Spatial analysis was done using Geographic information system which enabled the generation of heat maps to show variation in awareness, knowledge and practice of vital registration and performance levels of vital registration across the area councils of the FCT. This study found that for the 5 years period from 2017-2021, a total of 730,864 births were registered in the FCT which implies medium coverage of vital registration. Coverage and completeness was highest for Kuje for both under 1 year (32.4%) and under 5 years (15.07%) in 2021.However,98.6% of respondents from the Kwali area council demonstrated the highest zeal to register a vital event followed by the municipal area council (AMAC) (94.4%). Abaji is ranked lower than other area councils (86.4%) and also fared poorly in awareness and knowledge of vital registration.  The challenges to vital registration include poor knowledge of the legal value, lack of awareness, illiteracy and communication, norms and cultural practices and limited accessibility to registration centres. This study recommends the existence of a massive awareness creation structure to promote household understanding of the need for vital registration as well as the time to register each event, what events to register and where to register them for proper planning and development.