Knowledge of Women

Objectives: Around 50 to 70% of the neural tube defects can be prevented if awoman consumes sufficient folic acid daily before conception and throughout first trimester ofher pregnancy. Therefore, the women should be well aware about the apt supplementation offolic acid to mitigate those miseries that can be resulted from its deficiency. Study Design: Adescriptive survey design. Setting: Obstetrical OPDs of Lahore General Hospital, Lady AitchisonHospital, Jinnah Hospital Lahore, DHQ Hospital Multan, DHQ Hospital Faisalabad, and DHQHospital Rawalpindi. Methodology: A total of 300 pregnant women were studied to assess thelevel of knowledge and practices among women regarding use of folic acid before and duringpregnancy. Non probability convenient sampling technique was used for the purpose. Data wascollected by a self administered questionnaire and was analysed by SPSS version 20. A p-valueof ≤ 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: The results signified that a majorfraction of pregnant women 227 (76%) were having poor level of knowledge as they scoredless than 50% on knowledge based questions in the questionnaire. Only 4% were distinguishedwith excellent knowledge according to arbitrary scale, which were made-up to be a very lowpercentage. Conclusion: Findings of the study suggested that the knowledge of the womenregarding folic acid supplementation is insufficient that may in response lead to increase risk forthe incidences of neural tube defect.