The awareness of the importance of folic acid intake in periconceptional period among saudi women visiting primary health centers in al-ahsa, saudi arabia, 2018

Background: Folic acid deficiency will cause health problem for both mother, and her fetus. These health problems include megaloblasticanaemia in the mothers and neural tube defect in the fetus the prevalence of which is1.2 per 1000 live births in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Objective: This study aimed to assess the level of The Awareness and knowledge of the Importance of Folic Acid intake in Periconceptional Period in preventing NTD among Saudi Women Visiting Primary Health Centers in Al-Ahsa.
Method: This was a cross-sectional study. A self-administered questionnaire was answered by 403 Saudi women aged between (15-44) years who were visiting PHCs in Al-Ahsaafter taking their consents. The selection of participants was made by systematic random sampling after cluster sampling of Al-Ahsa primary health centers.
Results: Approximately half of the participants (200) were between the age group 21 - 30 years; the study showed that 31.3% of women had a good awareness of folic acid. However, the majority of women (68.7%) were either unaware of folic acid at all or had poor awareness. Regarding knowledge, 58.8% of women had good knowledge, and 41.2% were found to have poor knowledge towards folic acid. Educational level and the number of children were significantly associated with knowledge level (p-value 0.001, and < 0.001 respectively). Age groups, number of children and planning of pregnancy were significantly associated with the level of awareness (p-value 0.044, < 0.001 and 0.028 respectively).
Conclusion: As the percentage of women who heard about folic acid is 94% and 24% of them not taking it, we need to improve the awareness by involving the counseling about folic acid importance for both couples in premarital counseling and distribute brochures by Public health campaigns to declare the effect of folic acid on preventing NTDs.