Abstract:
Background: -In developing countries, there is a huge lack of knowledge about preconception care. It has been found that preconception care is the most important component of maternal care to reduce the challenges regarding maternal and child health. Preconception care is the provision of biomedical, behavioral, and social health interventions to women and their couples before conception occurs, aimed at improving their health status, and reducing behavioral and environmental factors that lead to poor maternal and child health outcomes. Evidence in this regard is scarce in Ethiopia, particularly in the study area.
Objective: - This study was aimed at assessing the knowledge of preconception care and associated factors among reproductive-age women in Debretabor town, Northwest Ethiopia, 2022/23.
Methods: - A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted among 418 reproductiveage women from January 27th to February 27th, 2023 in Debre Tabor Town. A systematic random sampling technique was used to select the study participants. Data were collected using a pre-tested and structured questionnaire through face-to-face interviews. The collected data were entered into Epi-Info version 7 and exported to SPSS version 23 for cleaning and analysis. Binary logistic regression analyses were undertaken to identify associated factors with the outcome variable. In the last model, a p-value of <0.05 was used to declare statistical association.
Result: - In this study, good knowledge of preconception care among reproductive-age women was found to be 21.7% (95% CI: 18.1, 28.6). Being age 25-34 (AOR =3.89; 95% CI: 1.31, 11.52), educational level of diploma and above (AOR =6.79; 95% CI: 2.72, 16.94), having chronic medical problems, (AOR =3.91; 95% CI: 1.27, 11.97)), and women who ever got counseling about preconception care (AOR =5.46; 95% CI: 2.26, 14.05) were factors significantly associated with good knowledge of preconception care.
Conclusions and recommendation: - In this study, only one-fifth of reproductive-age women have good knowledge of preconception care. Thus increasing the educational status of women and counseling on preconception care have great role in improving knowledge of preconception care
