Assessment of knowledge, attitude, and practice on preconception care among pregnant women at National Hospital, Thimphu, Bhutan

Introduction: Preconception care provided before conception or between subsequent pregnancies aims to identify and modify risks to women`s health or pregnancy through prevention and management. For successful implementation and uptake of preconception care services, adequate level of knowledge and positive attitude of women is important. Therefore this study was undertaken to assess the knowledge, attitude and level of practice of preconception care by our women. Methods: This was a hospital based cross sectional study done from July 2021 to December 2021. All pregnant women visiting the Mother and Child Hospital for booking visit were considered for the study. Stringent inclusion and exclusion criteria were utilized during recruitment. Data was collected using an interviewer administered questionnaire. Results: A total of 340 pregnant women consented for the study. The mean age of the participants was 28.3 (SD±4.5) years, 57.6% of the pregnant women had higher education and 54.4% were employed. The overall mean knowledge score on assessment of preconception care was 6.96±2.4 and 217(63.8%) had good knowledge. Of the 340 women, 98.2% had positive attitude towards the preconception care with a median score of 27 (Min-Max: 10-30) but 78.2% had poor practice. A significant association was found between good practice of preconception care with their knowledge level (p=0.012) but not with positive attitude (p=0.346). Conclusions: The study found that despite having good knowledge with positive attitude, the practice of preconception care among the study participants was poor. Therefore, we recommend further detailed study on factors associated with poor practice of preconception care among pregnant women.