Intention to Use and Its Predictors Towards Preconception Care Use Among Reproductive Age Women in Southwest Ethiopia, 2020: Application of Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB)

BACKGROUND: Preconception care should be given in universal manner worldwide by manifesto of WHO. The government of Ethiopia gives the emphasis to maternal and child health but the progress of its improvement is too slow. Maternal health services especially before pregnancy is the unreached agenda in Ethiopia. Therefore, there is limited evidence on the intention to preconception care and its determinants in southwest Ethiopia. So, the aim of this study to determine the intention to use and its predictors of preconception care use among reproductive age women. METHODS: A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted in southwest Ethiopia. Systematically selected 427 reproductive age women were involved in this study. Face-to-face interview was used to collect the data by trained data collectors. The collected data was entered into EpiData version 3.1 and then exported to SPSS version 25 for further analysis. Multiple linear regression analysis was conducted to identify predictors to intention to use preconception care. P-value less than 5% was considered to indicate significant association. The standardized β-coefficient was presented as measure of association following a multivariable linear regression analysis. RESULTS: The response rate of the study was 98.13%. The mean age of respondents in the study was 34.21[±6.21] years. Nearly twenty (19.8%) respondents had used preconception care previously. The attitude (β =0.320, p=0.0418), subjective norm (β =0.344, p<0.001), perceived behavioral control (β=0.512, p<0.001), indirect subjective norm (β =−0.108, p=0.002) and age of respondents (β =0.046, p=0.020) were predictors of intention to use preconception care. CONCLUSION: Intention to use preconception care is a multiplicative effect of attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavioral control and indirect subjective norm. Age is the only socio-demographic variables associated to intention.