Food related risks during pregnancy: how much do women know ...

1 downloads 0 Views 33KB Size Report
Nov 22, 2014 - 1Health Services Research Laboratory, University of Siena, Siena, Italy. 2Post Graduate School of Public Health, University of Siena, Siena, ...
7th European Public Health Conference: Saturday 22 November 2014 13:10-14:10

329

Food related risks during pregnancy: how much do women know about it? Andrea Serafini E Ricchi1, A Serafini2, N Nante1,2,3, F Petraglia1,3, G Messina1,2 1 Health Services Research Laboratory, University of Siena, Siena, Italy 2 Post Graduate School of Public Health, University of Siena, Siena, Italy 3 Teaching Hospital ‘‘Le Scotte’’, University of Siena, Siena, Italy Contact: [email protected]

Background There is an increasing concern about food related risks in women during pregnancy. Usually women gather informations from: Internet, easy to consult, books and magazines, seen as a reliable source, health professionals, perceived as a tailored on the patient source, etc. The aims of this study are 1) to evaluate the perception and the knowledge of food-related risks by pregnant women 2) assessing the sources to which most women rely on. Methods data were collected through an anonymous questionnaire, previously used in another study, handed to all women admitted in the maternity wards of the Hospital ‘Le Scotte’ in Siena from September 2013 to Ferbruary 2014. A total of 260 questionnaires was distributed. An optical system was used to standardize the data collection. The final data were analyzed using odds ratios and 2 test. Results our response rate was 57.3%. More than 90% of the women became interested and received information about the food related risks during pregnancy: 78.5% by the gynecologist and/or at least 45% from the Internet. In addition, we have seen that parity, birthplace and education level may affect the awareness and knowledge of certain aspects of food related risks: foreign women learn from the gynecologist less information than the Italian ones (OR 0:32, p = 0.01); graduated compared with non-graduated are more aware of

330

European Journal of Public Health, Vol. 24, Supplement 2, 2014

the problem of Listeria (OR 3.86, p < 0.001); primiparous compared to multiparous consider most dangerous toxoplasma (p = 0.004). Conclusions The women studied claim to have a good awareness of foodrelated risks, although it is not always correct. This discrepancy can be due to improper use of information sources; in fact, many of them as internet and friends are not always reliable. So it could be useful to organize a better nutrition education with trained health personnel like midwife, dietitian and gynecologist that may work together to improve women’s knowlerge about food related risks. Key messages  More than 90% of the pregnant women received information about food-related risk: mainly from the gynecologyst (78.5%) and from the Internet (45%).  Nationality, level of instruction and parity are variables which influence the information sources and the knowledge of the women about food related risks during pregnancy.