Educational Status and Needs of Premature Birth Prevention and Its Association with Preconception Health Behavior among Women of Childbearing Age in Korea

ABSTRACT

Purpose@#The aim of this study was to investigate the educational status and needs of premature birth prevention, and to identify factors associated with preconception health behaviors. @*Methods@#The study design was a crosssectional descriptive study. Data were collected through an online questionnaire survey, and the subjects were 192 women of childbearing age in Korea. Data were analyzed using the Mann-Whitney U test, Kruskal-Wallis test, Spearman's correlation coefficients, and multiple regression. @*Results@#The proportion of subjects who received education on premature birth prevention was 8.9%, and 75.5% of subjects answered that they needed education on premature birth prevention. They demanded education through online media, small groups, cases, cartoons (webtoon) with stories, pictures, and videos. A related factor of preconception health behavior was self-efficacy for high-risk pregnancy health care (β=.20, p=.012), which accounted for 8.2% of the total variance related to preconception health behavior. @*Conclusion@#There was a need for more development of education programs to prevent premature birth for women of childbearing age. Its education programs should be applied with online, small group activities using various educational media. It is also required to promote preconception health behavior through self-efficacy for high-risk pregnancy health care.