An awareness and experiences of pregnant women towards antenatal weight management at maternity hospital, Najran city, KSA

<p>Nasser Alqahtani</p>

An awareness and experiences of pregnant women towards antenatal weight management at maternity hospital, Najran city, KSA

Nasser Alqahtani

Najran University, KSA

: Int J Ment Health Psychiatry

Abstract

Objective: This study is to evaluate pregnant women awareness and experiences towards the management of obesity and weight gain during pregnancy. Method: This was a cross-sectional study (n = 416) conducted over 3 months in 2017 of pregnant women attending antenatal clinics at a maternity hospital, Najran city, KSA. An Interviewer administered, questionnaire was used. Results: Results were shown 58.7% of participants (n = 244) had low awareness for management of obesity and weight gain during pregnancy, with the highest level of awareness regarding management objectives and strategies (77.2%), while the lowest level of awareness folic acid (44%). In addition, 90.4% (n = 376) showed poor experience in counseling about obesity management in pregnancy. Four risk factors were shown to be important indicators of awareness and experience of participants with largest being an occupation (Adjusted OR=2.7, p=0.001), nationality (Adjusted OR=2.4, p=0.015), regular follow up (Adjusted OR=1.7, p=0.049) and education level (Adjusted OR=1.3, p=0.009). Conclusions: Study findings are indicating that low level of awareness for management of bodyweight during pregnancy in addition to bad experience in counseling about recommended guidelines for that may explain up to some extent why women are not being served appropriately regarding body weight. drnasser1000@hotmail.com