Investigation on knowledge and practice of iodine deficiency disorders prevention and control among main caregivers of pregnant women in trimester / 中华地方病学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:To learn about the knowledge and practice of iodine deficiency disorders (IDD) prevention and control among main caregivers of pregnant women in trimester and its related influencing factors, so as to provide a scientific basis for effectively improving the iodine nutrition level of pregnant women.Methods:In April 2020, using the stratified sampling method, 2 districts and counties were selected in the urban, suburban and rural areas of Hangzhou City, respectively, and 5 maternal and child health care institutions were selected as the survey sites in each district and county according to the five directions of East, West, South, North and Middle. A face-to-face questionnaire investigation was used to investigate the knowledge and practice of IDD prevention and control among main caregivers of pregnant women.Results:Totally 601 caregivers of pregnant women were investigated. Among them, 68.9% (414/601) knew that eating iodized salt was the best way to prevent IDD. However, 15.0% (90/601) thought that eating seafood was the best way to prevent IDD. And 41.9% (252/601) caregivers of pregnant women would actively purchase iodine-rich food for cooking, and 63.6% (382/601) would choose iodized salt. There were statistically significant differences in the knowledge and practice of IDD prevention and control among caregivers of pregnant women in urban, suburban and rural areas ( P < 0.05). And 50.3% (87/173) male caregivers would actively purchase iodine-rich food for cooking, which was higher than that of female caregivers [38.6% (165/428)], the difference was statistically significant (χ 2 = 6.97, P = 0.008). There was a statistically significant difference between the caregivers of pregnant women of different ages in actively purchasing iodine-rich food for cooking (χ 2 = 12.61, P = 0.013). And there were statistically significant differences between the caregivers of pregnant women with different educational levels in actively purchasing iodine-rich food for cooking and choosing iodized salt (χ 2 = 29.34, 39.42, P < 0.001). Conclusions:The awareness of knowledge about IDD prevention and control and the formation of prevention and control behavior among caregivers of pregnant women in Hangzhou City are poor. Active education of caregivers of pregnant women should be strengthened to promote maternal and infant health.