Are the Level of Knowledge and Practices of Pregnant Women Regarding Folic Acid Supplementation Still Inadequate? A Cross-Sectional Study in a Middle Eastern Urban Setting

2017 ◽  
Vol 15 (5) ◽  
pp. 692-703
Author(s):  
Antoine Aoun ◽  
Lara Faddoul ◽  
Flora El Jabbour ◽  
Nada El Osta ◽  
Sani Hlais ◽  
...  
2019 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 21
Author(s):  
Mary Kamau ◽  
Samuel Kimani ◽  
Waithira Mirie

Background: The increased demand for iron and folic acid during pregnancy is not met through diet due to insufficiency or reduced bioavailability of nutrients among women from low income countries. Thus, iron and folic acid supplementation (IFAS) is a promising interventional strategy for control of anaemia during pregnancy. Kenya adopted the global IFAS intervention with a target of 80% coverage by 2017, however, the compliance remains low. Increasing awareness, counselling, communication and community education on IFAS have improved compliance among pregnant women. Thus, we aimed to determine: IFAS knowledge, availability, practices, and content of IFAS counselling among pregnant women attending health facilities in Kiambu County, Kenya. Methods: A cross-sectional study involving 364 pregnant women aged 15-49 years. A two stage cluster sampling, including one sub-county and five public health facilities were used. A pre-tested structured questionnaire consisting of socio-demographic data, maternal knowledge and counselling on IFAS was used. An observation checklist was used to observe practices and content of antenatal counselling session in each facility. Data was analysed using STATA in which descriptive and inferential statistics were computed. Results: Of 364 respondents, less than half (40.9%) scored high on knowledge on IFAS. Women who were counselled on duration of IFAS intake, side effects, and their mitigation were more likely (p <0.005) to have high IFAS knowledge. Although all the health facilities had varied IFAS posters displayed, none had key IFAS counselling documents. Conclusion: Less than half of the pregnant women had high IFAS knowledge, IFAS documents were scarce in health facilities, IFAS counselling information in different health facilities was limited and varied and content of counselling was associated with levels of knowledge on IFAS. This underscores the need to strengthen focused and targeted IFAS counselling for pregnant women and standardization of counselling messages to improve compliance and pregnancy outcomes.


2021 ◽  
Vol Volume 15 ◽  
pp. 501-510
Author(s):  
Tadashi Yamashita ◽  
Ramon Emilio Daniel Roces ◽  
Cecilia Ladines-Llave ◽  
Maria Teresa Reyes Tuliao ◽  
Mary Wanjira Kamau ◽  
...  

2019 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 21
Author(s):  
Mary Kamau ◽  
Samuel Kimani ◽  
Waithira Mirie

Background: The increased demand for iron and folic acid during pregnancy is not met through diet due to insufficiency or reduced bioavailability of nutrients among women from low income countries. Thus, iron and folic acid supplementation (IFAS) is a promising interventional strategy for control of anaemia during pregnancy. Kenya adopted the global IFAS intervention with a target of 80% coverage by 2017, however, the compliance remains low. Increasing awareness, counselling, communication and community education on IFAS have improved compliance among pregnant women. Thus, we aimed to determine: IFAS knowledge, availability, practices, and content of IFAS counselling among pregnant women attending health facilities in Kiambu County, Kenya. Methods: A cross-sectional study involving 364 pregnant women aged 15-49 years. A two stage cluster sampling, including one sub-county and five public health facilities were used. A pre-tested, structured questionnaire consisting of socio-demographic data, maternal knowledge and counselling on IFAS was used. An observation checklist was used to observe practices and content of antenatal counselling session in each facility. Data was analysed using STATA in which descriptive and inferential statistics were computed. Results: Of 364 respondents, less than half (40.9%) scored high on knowledge on IFAS. Women who were counselled on duration of IFAS intake, side effects, and their mitigation were more likely (p <0.005) to have high IFAS knowledge. Although all the health facilities had varied IFAS posters displayed, none had key IFAS counselling documents. Conclusion: Less than half of the pregnant women had high IFAS knowledge, IFAS documents were scarce in health facilities, IFAS counselling information in different health facilities was limited and varied, and content of counselling was associated with levels of knowledge on IFAS. This underscores the need to strengthen focused and targeted IFAS counselling for pregnant women and standardization of counselling messages to improve compliance and pregnancy outcomes.


2018 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 21
Author(s):  
Mary Kamau ◽  
Samuel Kimani ◽  
Waithira Mirie

Background: The demand for iron and folic acid, is greatly increased during pregnancy. The high demand is not met through diet due to insufficiency or reduced bioavailability of nutrients among women from low income countries. Thus, iron and folic acid supplementation (IFAS) is a promising interventional strategy for control of anaemia during pregnancy. Kenya adopted the global IFAS intervention with a target of 80% coverage by 2017, however, the compliance remains low. Increasing awareness, counselling, communication and community education on IFAS have improved compliance among pregnant women. Thus, we aimed to determine: availability, practices, and content of IFAS counselling on knowledge of antenatal mothers attending health facilities in Kiambu County, Kenya. Methods: A cross-sectional study involving 364 pregnant women aged 15-49 years attending antenatal clinic. A two stage cluster sampling, including one sub-county and five public primary health facilities were used. A pre-tested structured questionnaire consisting of socio-demographic data, maternal knowledge and counselling on IFAS was used. An observation checklist was used to observe practices and content of antenatal counselling session in each facility. Data was analysed using STATA in which descriptive and inferential statistics were computed. Results: Of 364 respondents, less than half (40.9%) scored high on knowledge on IFAS. Women who were counselled on duration of IFAS intake, side effects, and their mitigation were more likely (p <0.005) to have high IFAS knowledge. Although all the health facilities had varied IFAS posters displayed, none had key IFAS counselling documents. Conclusion: Content of counselling substantially contributed to high level of knowledge on IFAS among pregnant women. Counselling information on the duration of IFAS supplementation, IFAS side effects, and their management are the predictors of IFAS knowledge among pregnant women. This underscores the need to strengthen focused and targeted IFAS counselling for pregnant women to improve compliance and pregnancy outcomes.


Nutrition ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 79-80 ◽  
pp. 110886 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roberta Gazzino ◽  
Walter Marrocco ◽  
Antonio Pio D'Ingianna ◽  
Eleonora Poggiogalle ◽  
Anna Maria Giusti ◽  
...  

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 63-69
Author(s):  
Rupesh Kumar Mishra ◽  
Kalpana Tiwari

The high prevalence of iron deficiency anemia and low compliance of iron and folic acid supplementation was reported among pregnant women in Nepal. This study aimed to determine the knowledge and compliance of iron and folic acid supplementation among pregnant and postnatal women in Kathmandu. A descriptive cross-sectional study design was adopted for the study. Sample size was 103 and purposive sampling technique was used to collect the data. All Pregnant women of having above 7 month pregnancy and postnatal’s up to 6 months women were included. Data was collected by using self-administered questionnaire .All the obtained data were analyzed with the help of SPSS version 20. Assessment of knowledge revealed that 85.6 % (88) of the participants have adequate knowledge regarding iron and folic acid supplementation .The findings showed 78.6% (81) of the respondents had  iron and folic acid compliance as standard of Nepal government that is to be taken minimum 180 tablet before delivery. It concludes that the level of knowledge and compliance rate of iron and folic acid supplementation in Kathmandu is satisfactory in comparisons to national status i.e. 42% according to Nepal Demographic health survey 2016. Pearson chi-square test shows that level of knowledge on iron and folic acid tablet is not associated with the compliance of iron and folic acid tablet (χ²= 0.019, p< 0.889). The main reason of respondents having compliance is due to having proper counseling from health worker and non compliance is due to forgetting to have tablet. Therefore improving knowledge level only can’t improve compliance level, various factors like counseling, accessibility and availability of iron and folic acid tablet, side effect of tablet and family support also affects the compliance of iron and folic acid supplementation.


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