Level of Knowledge on Prematurity and Its Complications in Women Seeking Care at Referral Hospitals in Mexico

Objective: To determine the level of knowledge that women had on risk factors for and complications of prematurity at a referral hospital.

Materials and Methods: This was a comparative transverse study conducted in 2015, including women seeking care at a referral hospital, dividing this population into four groups: 1. Pregnant, n=108 (37%), 2. Not pregnant, n=85 (29%), 3. Women seeking an ophthalmological appointment for their prematurely born infant, n=13 (5%), and 4. Women with babies in Neonatal Intensive Care Units, n=85 (29%). Inferential statistics with chi-squared and Mann–Whitney U tests were applied using SPSS ver. 21.0 statistical software package.

Results: The population of women in its majority lived in a common-law marriage and had a secondary-school education. Knowledge of neonatal risk factors included smoking, n=239 (82%) alcoholism, n=236 (81%) diabetes, n=176 (61%), hypertension, n=210 (72%), and fever, n=123 (42%). Significant differences among this study groups were found in relation to the following risk factors for and complication of prematurity; alcoholism, p=0.001; diabetes, p=0.012; the infant’s eye problems, p=0.004; the infant’s language problems, p=0.036, and retinopathy of the premature infant, p=0.027. Differences were found on comparing adolescent with older mothers in terms of knowledge of risk factors, p=0.000 and knowledge of long-term prematurity complications, p=0.005.

Conclusion: The principal risk factors identified by mothers were smoking, alcoholism, and diabetes. The most frequently referred complications in the prematurely born infant were those that presented at the short term, mainly ocular and language problem complications.