Awareness and factors associated with preconception care amongst pregnant women attending antenatal care at Kawempe National Refferal Hospital

Abstract

Introduction: The rising number of congenital anomalies despite the ministry of health policy on folic acid supplementation for all pregnant women indicates that preconception care is not only underutilized but there is also a rising unmet need for it in the general population. All men and women of reproductive age require comprehensive preconception care (PCC) through improved awareness and availability in all health care facilities as per WHO recommendations to ensure improved maternal and fetal outcomes. This study determined the level of awareness of PCC among pregnant women attending antenatal care at Kawempe National Referral Hospital (KNRH) and assessed the factors associated with awareness of PCC among pregnant women attending antenatal care at KNRH. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study that was conducted at KNRH. We recruited 362 pregnant women attending ANC after obtaining written informed consent. A pretested interviewer-administered questionnaire was used following systematic sampling. The collected data was entered in Epidata version 4.2 and exported to Stata 15.1 for analysis. Continuous variables were summarized using mean and standard deviation. Categorical variables were summarized using frequencies and proportions. Factors associated with awareness were assessed at both bivariate and multivariate levels. Results: We found a low level of awareness of preconception care (PCC) among pregnant women attending antenatal care at Kawempe National Referral hospital at 21.5%(78). Awareness of PCC was 1.6 times higher among the respondents aged 25 to 34 years [aOR=1.62, CI: 1.12-2.33, P=0.029] and 2 times higher among those aged 35 years and above [aOR=2.01, CI: 1.25-4.18, P=0.031] as compared to those aged 18 to 24 years. Awareness level was also 2.69 times higher among those who were married [aOR=2.69, CI: 1.22-6.63, P=0.011] compared to single counterparts. Awareness level of PCC was also 2.67 times higher among those who had completed tertiary level of education [aOR=2.67, CI: 1.32-4.02, P=0.028]. Those who had attended ANC before were 3.1 times more likely to be aware about PCC than those who had not [aOR=3.11, CI: 1.41-8.66, P=0.014]. Awareness of PCC was 4.3 times higher among those who had antenatal screening for HIV [aOR=4.3, CI: 2.64-10.13, P=0.0001] and 3.12 higher among those who were HIV positive [aOR=3.12, CI: 1.22-7.35, P=0.004] than those who were negative. Conclusion: The finding of this study indicated that the level of awareness of preconception care among pregnant women attending antenatal care at Kawempe National Referral hospital (KNRH) is low. Women aged 35 years and above, those who were multiparous, those who were married with xii partner support, who had attained tertiary level of education, were HIV positive and those who had ever attended ANC more than once were more likely to be aware