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Pregnancy Hypertens. 2012 Jul;2(3):264-5. doi: 10.1016/j.preghy.2012.04.154. Epub 2012 Jun 13.

PP043. Do women know what pre-eclampsia is? What is the level of knowledge of the disease in a small population connected to a social net?.

Pregnancy hypertension

C P Mosca, J M Sapata, J L Sato, E J Marin, N Sass

Affiliations

  1. Obstetrics, Universidade de Mogi das Cruzes, Mogi das Cruzes, Brazil.
  2. Obstetrics, Universidade de Mogi das Cruzes, Mogi das Cruzes, Brazil; Obstetrics, Federal University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil.

PMID: 26105366 DOI: 10.1016/j.preghy.2012.04.154

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: Pre-eclampsia is responsible for a great number of maternal deaths in our country. Even in urban areas that, theoretically, has more access to information and more medical assistance possibilities, much more women have very severe cases that could be avoided. Many initiatives to reduce this problem include effective women participation in that item, making us to believe that actual information access would allow precocious detection of the problem, leading to reduction of the maternal and perinatal risks.

OBJECTIVES: To investigate a specific female population about how much they understand about the disease and its risks.

METHODS: Using the social net Facebook®, a survey was developed for online use, where direct questions related to pre-eclampsia were made. The questions involved information about age, times of pregnancy, knowledge about pre-eclampsia and their risks. It was considered an inclusion criterion the women who decided to participate in the survey spontaneously, and their identity was preserved. This form was sent to 1000 women, and 120 fully answered the questions and they were put under analysis.

RESULTS: The studied group had average age between 22 and 35years. From the total, 107 (89.6%) had at least initiated high school, and the rest (11%) said that they had at least finished elementary school. From the analyzed data, it was found that 60 (50%) of the interviewed women, did not know anything about the subject. The rest said that they had some knowledge about the topic. From those, 14 (23%) had already heard about pre-eclampsia, but did not know what was it, 44 (73%) had a vaguely notion but did not know about the risks, and just 2 (4%) gave the entirely correct definition and knew about its implications. From all, 24 (20%) from the interviewed had at least once been pregnant, and 15 from those, had never heard about the pathology.

CONCLUSION: Despite of the impact that pre-eclampsia represents on mother and baby's health, our results show that information in the studied group, is poor. The studied group has naturally more access to information, showing us that the situation is even more concerning. We believe that it is necessary to apply instruments that could redefine, in a greater way, the real information level to the female population in all levels of assistance. To enlarge the health politics, and increase its efficiency through informed women, seem to us, a fundamental strategy to qualify assistance and enhance maternal and prenatal safety. In an era that social nets had changed human behavior, why should not we use it as an efficient tool to promote life quality?

Copyright © 2010. Published by Elsevier B.V.

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