Survey on Pre-pregnancy Health Knowledge and Service Demands among Un-pregnant Married Women

Birth defect is one of the important factors which affect population quality. To reduce birth defect and enhance population quality, pre-pregnancy health should be emphasized. This article aimed to understand the pre-pregnancy health knowledge and service…

Survey on Pre-pregnancy Health Knowledge and Service Demands among Un-pregnant Married Women

Objective To understand the pre-pregnancy health knowledge and service needs among un-pregnant married women in Shanghai.Methods A total of 968 newly-married un-pregnant women in Changqiao, Lingyun sub-districts and Huajing town of Xuhui district, Shanghai, were recruited and interviewed by structured questionnaire to collect the information on pre-pregnancy health knowledge and service demands.Results 1) Newly-married women thought the contraceptive methods suitable for them was male condom(84.4%), followed by oral contraceptives(54%), emergent contraceptive(52.5%) and contraceptive suppository (48. 3%). 2) The score of pre-pregnancy health knowledge was 54. 7±14.5 among the subjects. The participants with junior college or a bachelor had more knowledge than those with junior or senior high school, and those who were engaged in medicine/education/science field had higher score. 3) They had higher knowing rate on the common knowledge, and the rate was above 80%. But the knowing rate on the knowledge of birth defect was low,and all below 50%. 4)A proportion of 52. 7% of the respondents knew that there was a station for reproductive health service in their communities, but only 45.5% received the service from the station, 87. 0% thought they had insufficient or scarce knowledge,73.6% planned to consult before pregnancy and 63.6% were willing to attend the training courses on preparing pregnancy.Conclusion The participants had certain pre-pregnancy health knowledge, but still need being improved; in addition, they had higher needs on knowledge and service of birth defect prevention, at the same time they can't make full use of the existing reproductive health institution.