UTILIZATION OF PRECONCEPTION CARE AND ASSOCIATED FACTORS AMONG PREGNANT WOMEN IN BISHOFTU, OROMIA, ETHIOPIA, A FACILTY BASED STUDY

Abstract

Abstract Background: Preconception care is a combination of preventive, promotive health, and social services that are given for women and couples before conception. It consists of biomedical, behavioral, and social health interventions for couples and women before conception. It has vital role in reducing maternal and child mortality, and improving health status of the mother and the child by both direct and indirect effects. Objective: To determine the magnitude of preconception care utilization and its associated factors among pregnant women attending ANC follow up in public health facilities in Bishoftu city, Oromia region, South-East Ethiopia 2023. Methods: Institutional based cross-sectional was conducted among 417 women attending ANC clinic in public health facilities in Bishoftu city, Oromia, Ethiopia, from April 20 to June 20, 2023. The collected data was entered into Epi data 3.1.0, then exported to SPSS V.27 for data analysis. Binary logistic regression was used to fit each independent variable into a bivariable logistic regression model separately to explore the association with the dependent variable. Independent variables with a p-value < 0.25 in bivariable logistic regression was considered for multivariable logistic regression analysis. The level of significance was ascertained by odds ratio (OR) with a 95% confidence interval (CI) at a p-value < 0.05. Results: Among the study participants 140(33.60%) of them had utilized preconception care services from public health facilities. family planning before current pregnancy, Adujested odds ratio (AOR=13.875; 95% CI (6.261, 30.749)), multiy Parity (AOR=17.083; 95% CI (7.035, 41.482)), good maternal knowledge on preconception care (AOR=9.622;95% CI (4.250, 21.785)), and positive maternal attitude toward preconception care (AOR=5.471; 95% CI (2.459, 12.173)) were significantly associated with preconception care utilization Conclusion: This study showed that preconception care utilization in this study area is low. Family planning use before this pregnancy, multiparity, good knowledge on preconception care and positive attitude toward preconception care were factors which had positive significant association with preconception care utilization Keywords: preconception care utilization, factors affecting preconception care.