Knowledge, Attitude and Practice of Pregnant Women Referred to Health Care Centers of Kerman University of Medical Sciences in regard to Gestational Diabetes

Gestational diabetes is one of the most common metabolic disorders in pregnancy and because of its several maternal and fetal complications can affect the pregnancy outcome. Knowledge and attitude of pregnant women in relation to this issue is very beneficial in prevention and early diagnosis. This study was carried out to determine knowledge، attitude and practice of Women Referred to Health Care Centers of Kerman University of Medical Sciences، toward gestational diabetes. In this cross-sectional study، 1000 pregnant women referred to the Health Care Centers of Kerman University of Medical Sciences in 2010 were selcted by systematic randomized sampling and investigated. Data were gathered by using a researcher-made questionnaire consisted of demographic features and knowledge، attitude and practice testing items. Data analysis was done by Chi-square test and Spearman coefficient of correlations. Mean knowledge، attitude and practice scores were respectively 8. 42±4. 42 from 18، 29. 03±3. 84 from 40 and 20. 47±2. 68 from 24. In whole، 138 women (14. 2%) had good knowledge، 153 women (15. 6%) had positive attitude and 527 ones (53. 4%) obtained good score in practice. Knowledge and practice showed significant relationships with variables of age، job and educational level (p<0. 05). That is، knowledge and practice scores increased with increase in age and educational level and were higher in women with fixed monthly salary compared to others. Attitude score showed significant direct relationship with educational level (p=0. 030). Knowledge score showed significant direct relationship with attitude and practice scores. There was also significant direct relationship between attitude and practice scores (p=0. 000). Acoording to the results، most subjects had poor knowledge level and moderate attitude. Since Health Care Centers were the main source of information for most participants، planning educational programs for health care personnle in order to improve the population’s capabilities in self-care، family care and societal care is highly recommended.