Publication:

Assessment of knowledge and practice of periconceptional folate intake among women attending the antenatal clinic at Bowen Teaching Hospital, Ogbomoso, Oyo State, Nigeria

Background Folate has an important role in reducing risk of neural tube defects in fetus and megaloblastic anemia in women of reproductive age. This study assessed the knowledge and practice of periconceptional folate intake among pregnant women attending clinic at Bowen University Teaching Hospital, Ogbomoso, Oyo State, Nigeria.

Methods Two hundred and seventeen pregnant women were selected using simple random sampling technique. A semi-structured questionnaire was used for data collection. Descriptive and inferential statistics such as mean, frequency, percentage, standard deviation and Chi-square were used for data analysis.

Results The study showed that most respondents were young adults aged 19–30 years (63.6%) with a mean age of 28.32±5.05 years. Majority were married (92.2%), and had at least secondary education (53.5%). Very few (7.4%) of the pregnant women had a history of stillbirth or a baby with a congenital defect, whereas 3.2% had a history of a child with a neural tube defect. Nutritional knowledge of folate intake was low (25.8%) while practice of folate intake was high (88.0%). There was no significance association (p>0.05) between nutritional knowledge and practice of folate intake at (χ²=0.02, p=0.890). Key factors influencing folate rich food intake include lack of knowledge of folate rich food, poor economic status and pregnancy unplanned with mean scores (4.41), (3.22) and (3.50) respectively.

Conclusion The study revealed that the number of respondents that had good nutritional knowledge of folate intake was low, while those that had good dietary practices were high.