Knowledge, Attitudes and Practice about Obstetric Ultrasonography among Women Attending a University Hospital: A Cross-Sectional Study

Background: Obstetric sonography is one of the prenatal tests offered to most pregnant women and an essential tool that helps health care providers to establish fetal condition and growth. The Objective: to assess the knowledge, attitudes, and practice about obstetric sonography among women at KAUH in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Method: A cross-sectional study was conducted during 2018-2019 among 367 women. It included all women that attend the OB/GYN outpatient clinic at KAUH in Jeddah. The data was collected through interviewing questionnaire. The questionnaire consisted of 5 items to assess their knowledge, attitude, practice, and sociodemographic characteristics. Data were entered into a Microsoft Excel 2014 sheet, and statistical analysis was performed using IBM SPSS Statistics. Result: The mean knowledge score about obstetric sonography was 13.9 ± 1.7, where 343 (93.0%) had good knowledge, and only 26 (7.0%) had poor knowledge. The result revealed that the third-fourths of the women 291 (78.9%) believed that obstetric sonography is safe, and 309 (83.8%) believed that obstetric sonography doesn’t lead to a congenital anomaly. There was a difference in the knowledge score regarding education level, occupation, monthly income, and those with higher education, those who worked, and those with higher monthly payment had a higher knowledge score. Also, there was a positive correlation between knowledge score and both gravidity and parity. Conclusion: Women’s knowledge, attitude, and practice about the purpose of the obstetric sonography were good. So, the primary health care providers should be advised to focusing more on providing health education on obstetric sonography to all pregnant women during their ANC visits.