title: Women's knowledge and associated factors in preconception care in adet, west gojjam, northwest Ethiopia: a community based cross sectional study.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Preconception care is the provision of biomedical, behavioural and social health interventions to women and couples before the occurrence of conception to improve their health status. There is poor maternal and child health and lack of knowledge in developing countries about preconception care. Therefore, this study aimed to assess women's knowledge and associated factors in preconception care in Adet Town, Gojjam, Northwestern Ethiopia.
  
  
  METHODS
  A community based cross-sectional study was conducted among 422 systematically selected reproductive age group women who are living in the Adet town from March 1 to 30, 2016. The data were collected using pre tested and structured questionnaires through face-to-face interviews. The data were entered into Epi-Info version 3.5, and cleaned and analysed using SPSS version 20. Descriptive summary of the data and logistic regression were used to identify possible predictors using odds ratio with 95% confidence interval and P-value of 0.05.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The study revealed that the overall knowledge of preconception care was 27.5% (95% CI: 23.2, 32.0). Women who attended secondary educational and whose age is from 25 to 34 years were more likely to have better knowledge on preconception care than their counterparts were; (AOR 6.52, CI 2.55, 16.69) and (AOR 4.10, CI 1.78, 9.44) respectively. However, Women who had no history of family planning use were 85% less knowledgeable than those who had a history of family planning use (AOR: 0.15; 95% CI: 0.05, 0.44).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In this finding level of women's knowledge of preconception care is relatively low. Having a history of family planning use, having high levels of educational status, and being older age were associated with good knowledge. This finding suggests that there is a need to give emphasis and deliver health education about preconception care for women in order to increase their knowledge.
authors.affiliation: Department of midwifery, College of Health Sciences, University of Debre Tabor, Debre Tabor, Ethiopia. ayalewyitayal@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Yitayal
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ayalew
authors.affiliation: Department of Midwifery, College of Health Sciences Mekelle University, Mekelle, Ethiopia.
authors.forename: Amlaku
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mulat
authors.affiliation: Department of midwifery, College of Health Sciences, University of Debre Tabor, Debre Tabor, Ethiopia.
authors.forename: Mulugeta
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Dile
authors.affiliation: Department of midwifery, College of Health Sciences, University of Debre Tabor, Debre Tabor, Ethiopia.
authors.forename: Amare
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Simegn
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D055812:Community-Based Participatory Research; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005002:Ethiopia; D005193:Family Planning Services; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D016742:Preconception Care; D011247:Pregnancy; D060728:Reproductive Health; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Adet; Awareness; Ethiopia; Preconception care; Reproductive age group women