This is an interventional study utilizing a two group pretest - posttest design that aimed to determine and compare the effect of multimodal educational intervention versus unimodal educational intervention on the maternal health knowledge, beliefs and practices of mothers in selected transitory sites in Zamboanga City. A total of 256 mothers of reproductive age (18-44 years old) were selected through simple random sampling. The results showed that majority of respondents in both groups had a low level of maternal health knowledge. The mean scores of the knowledge of multimodal and unimodal groups were initially 11.13 and 11.11 respectively which increased significantly to 13.56 and 13 with p<0.001. When compared, multimodal group (2.43) showed significantly higher mean change than unimodal group (1.89) with (p<0.001). For maternal beliefs, multimodal group and unimodal group obtained an initial mean score of 39.95 and 41.35 which significantly improved to 47.44 and 43.60 respectively with p<0.001. However, multimodal group (7.49) was found to have higher mean change when compared to unimodal group (2.25) with p<0.001. As for maternal health practices, majority of the respondents in both groups had poor practices. The mean scores of the practice for both groups were initially 8.69 and 8.64 respectively which increased significantly to 10.77 and 10.40 with p<0.001 but no significant difference was found between the two groups (p=0.141). This study concluded that both multimodal and unimodal educational interventions were effective in improving the knowledge, beliefs and practices of the mothers. Specifically, multimodal educational intervention showed higher efficacy in enhancing their knowledge and beliefs on maternal health. However, both were equally effective in enhancing their maternal health practices.

Keyword: Multimodal versus unimodal educational intervention Maternal health knowledge, beliefs and practices of mothers