Tropical Journal of Pharmaceutical Research

Original Research Article | OPEN ACCESS

Evaluation of the knowledge and practices of pregnant Yemeni Women regarding teratogens

Saeed O Alfadly^1,2, Syed Wajid³ , Mahfoudh Al-Musali M Abdulghani¹, Mohammed Saif Anaam¹, Mahmoud Salem Bajubair², Suad M Ba-Samad², Mohammed N Alarifi³, Salmeen D Babelghaith³, Ibrahim Sales³, Wael H Mancy³

¹Department of Pharmacy Practice, Unaizah College of Pharmacy, Qassim University; ²Department of Pharmacy Practice, College of Medicine and Health Science, Hadramout University, Yemen; ³Department of Clinical Pharmacy, College of Pharmacy, King Saud University Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

For correspondence:- Syed Wajid Email: wali@ksu.edu.sa Tel:+966503754169

Accepted: 12 August 2017 Published: 30 September 2017

Citation: Alfadly SO, Wajid S, Abdulghani MA, Anaam MS, Bajubair MS, Ba-Samad SM, et al. Evaluation of the knowledge and practices of pregnant Yemeni Women regarding teratogens. Trop J Pharm Res 2017; 16(9):2281-2288 doi: 10.4314/tjpr.v16i9.33

© 2017 The authors.
This is an Open Access article that uses a funding model which does not charge readers or their institutions for access and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0) and the Budapest Open Access Initiative (http://www.budapestopenaccessinitiative.org/read), which permit unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited..

Abstract

Purpose: To investigate the knowledge and practice of pregnant women with regards to teratogens.

Methods: A month-long cross-sectional study was carried out among 150 pregnant women selected from four Motherhood and Child Healthcare Centers (MCHCs) in Mukalla District of Yemen. Data collection was conducted during face-to-face interviews using a questionnaire. Descriptive and simple regression analyses were used.

Results: Of the 150 pregnant women who participated in the study, 95.3 % of the pregnant women were < 36 years old, 7.4 % had children with congenital malformations, 62 % indicated that they had heard about folic acid; however, only 16.6 % knew the significance of folic acid. Regarding toxoplasmosis, 94.7 % indicated that they had heard about toxoplasmosis, and 76 % knew about the serious consequences of the disease (congenital malformation and abortion) during pregnancy. Based on simple regression analysis, the results indicate that education and parity, irrespective of age or income level, were the major factors determining better knowledge and practices in pregnancy with regards to toxoplasmosis.

Conclusion: Knowledge of folic acid deficiency among pregnant women in Mukalla District of Yemen is relatively low. Furthermore, preventive practices to avoid folic acid deficiency are minimal.

Keywords: Knowledge, Practices, Teratogens, Pregnant Yemeni women, Folic acid deficiency