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Preconception Health Attitudes and Behaviours of Women: A Qualitative Investigation

The preconception period is a critical window in which maternal health can profoundly affect both individual and intergenerational health. Despite its importance, little information about women’s preconception health attitudes, behaviours and information preferences exists, yet these details are vit...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Khan, Nadia N., Boyle, Jacqueline A., Lang, Adina Y., Harrison, Cheryce L.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6682867/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31261954
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/nu11071490
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author Khan, Nadia N.
Boyle, Jacqueline A.
Lang, Adina Y.
Harrison, Cheryce L.
author_facet Khan, Nadia N.
Boyle, Jacqueline A.
Lang, Adina Y.
Harrison, Cheryce L.
author_sort Khan, Nadia N.
collection PubMed
description The preconception period is a critical window in which maternal health can profoundly affect both individual and intergenerational health. Despite its importance, little information about women’s preconception health attitudes, behaviours and information preferences exists, yet these details are vital to inform targeted health communication. Semi-structured interviews were conducted to explore women’s attitudes to preconception health (areas of importance, support sources, enablers and barriers), behaviours (information seeking and health actions taken) and information preferences. Interviews were transcribed, coded and thematically analysed. Fifteen women participated (n = 7 preconception, n = 7 pregnant and n = 1 postpartum). Women perceived optimising lifestyle behaviours including a healthy diet, regular physical activity, reducing alcohol intake and pre-pregnancy vitamin supplementation as important preconception health actions to adopt. Few women acknowledged the importance of formal preconception health checks and screening with health professionals. Barriers to achieving health behaviour change included anxiety, stress and challenges obtaining reputable information. Participants reported a lack of preconception information about supplementation requirements, safe foods and exercise recommendations. Information preferences included the internet or their general practitioner. Whilst women predominantly prioritised optimising diet and physical activity prior to pregnancy, there appeared to be limited awareness of preconception health checks and screening, highlighting a need for broader awareness of overall preconception health and wellbeing.
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spelling pubmed-66828672019-08-09 Preconception Health Attitudes and Behaviours of Women: A Qualitative Investigation Khan, Nadia N. Boyle, Jacqueline A. Lang, Adina Y. Harrison, Cheryce L. Nutrients Article The preconception period is a critical window in which maternal health can profoundly affect both individual and intergenerational health. Despite its importance, little information about women’s preconception health attitudes, behaviours and information preferences exists, yet these details are vital to inform targeted health communication. Semi-structured interviews were conducted to explore women’s attitudes to preconception health (areas of importance, support sources, enablers and barriers), behaviours (information seeking and health actions taken) and information preferences. Interviews were transcribed, coded and thematically analysed. Fifteen women participated (n = 7 preconception, n = 7 pregnant and n = 1 postpartum). Women perceived optimising lifestyle behaviours including a healthy diet, regular physical activity, reducing alcohol intake and pre-pregnancy vitamin supplementation as important preconception health actions to adopt. Few women acknowledged the importance of formal preconception health checks and screening with health professionals. Barriers to achieving health behaviour change included anxiety, stress and challenges obtaining reputable information. Participants reported a lack of preconception information about supplementation requirements, safe foods and exercise recommendations. Information preferences included the internet or their general practitioner. Whilst women predominantly prioritised optimising diet and physical activity prior to pregnancy, there appeared to be limited awareness of preconception health checks and screening, highlighting a need for broader awareness of overall preconception health and wellbeing. MDPI 2019-06-29 /pmc/articles/PMC6682867/ /pubmed/31261954 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/nu11071490 Text en © 2019 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Khan, Nadia N.
Boyle, Jacqueline A.
Lang, Adina Y.
Harrison, Cheryce L.
Preconception Health Attitudes and Behaviours of Women: A Qualitative Investigation
title Preconception Health Attitudes and Behaviours of Women: A Qualitative Investigation
title_full Preconception Health Attitudes and Behaviours of Women: A Qualitative Investigation
title_fullStr Preconception Health Attitudes and Behaviours of Women: A Qualitative Investigation
title_full_unstemmed Preconception Health Attitudes and Behaviours of Women: A Qualitative Investigation
title_short Preconception Health Attitudes and Behaviours of Women: A Qualitative Investigation
title_sort preconception health attitudes and behaviours of women: a qualitative investigation
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6682867/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31261954
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/nu11071490
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