Knowledge and Attitudes of Women about Preconception Care

Background and Objectives: Preconception care is a set of care services, which assesses the risks of pregnancy and improves women health through providing trainings, diagnostic and therapeutic measures, and pharmaceutical interventions. Considering its importance and impact on pregnancy outcome, this study aimed to determine knowledge and attitude of women about preconception care. Methods: This cross-sectional study was carried out on 384 married women aged 15-49 years in the Natanz city in 2015. Samples were selected by systematic random sampling method. Data were collected using a researcher-made questionnaire. Data were analyzed using Spearman correlation and Independent t-tests. Results: In this study, the mean score of knowledge in the women of Natanz city was 8.13±1.5, 1.04% of women had neutral attitude, and 98.9% had positive attitude. There was no statistical difference between attitude and knowledge scores in urban and rural areas. There were significant differences between knowledge and attitude (p=0.019) and between attitude and education level (p=0.000). There was not a significant relationship between knowledge and education level. The main source of information was radio and television (73.2%) and health workers (67.2%). Conclusion: Considering awareness and positive attitude of women about preconception care, encouraging women to use these services via the mass media and other ways of informing and educating, is recommended to improve health care coverage. Also, it is necessary to perform researches on investigation and identification of factors affecting women's performance