How well are pregnant women in Croatia informed about the oral glucose tolerance test?

Marija Kocijancic,Patricija Bankovic Radovanovic

doi:10.11613/bm.2015.023

Abstract

IntroductionPreanalytical errors still constitute the largest source of errors in laboratory work. Proper patient preparation and patient’s knowledge about a particular procedure affects its accuracy and reliability. We hypothesized that most of pregnant women are not well enough informed about the proper procedure for the OGTT. The aims of this study were to investigate: (i) how well pregnant women are informed about the OGTT; (ii) the most common way to inform pregnant women about OGTT and (iii) whether pregnant women’s level of knowledge about the OGTT differ regarding source of information.Materials and methodsThe anonymous questionnaire was conducted across the country in 23 Croatian primary and secondary healthcare centres. The questionnaire contained 9 questions on certain demographic data and familiarity with OGTT procedure. All 343 participants filled the questionnaire before the first blood draw.Results42% of the participants demonstrated high and 38% adequate level of knowledge about the OGTT procedure. Majority of participants were informed about the procedure by gynaecologist (56%). The level of knowledge differed among participants with different sources of information (P = 0.030). Further analysis showed that the level of knowledge was lower in pregnant women having received information from their gynaecologist compared to pregnant women who received information from the laboratory staff.ConclusionsIn general, pregnant women are familiar with OGTT procedure, main source of information about the OGTT procedure is their gynaecologist, but the level of knowledge was higher in women who received information about the OGTT procedure from the laboratory staff.

Highlights

Preanalytical errors still constitute the largest source of errors in laboratory work
In general, pregnant women are familiar with oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) procedure, main source of information about the OGTT procedure is their gynaecologist, but the level of knowledge was higher in women who received information about the OGTT procedure from the laboratory staff
The results showed no difference in the level of knowledge among participants who had or had not done OGTT some times in the past (P = 0.066) nor was there any difference found in the level of knowledge between the participants coming from the primary health or secondary healthcare centres (P = 0.856)

Summary

Introduction

Preanalytical errors still constitute the largest source of errors in laboratory work. Proper patient preparation and patient’s knowledge about a particular procedure affects its accuracy and reliability. Preanalytical variables like fasting requirements, biological variation, time and venipuncture techniques, physical activity or smoking as well as actions during sampling (some laboratory procedures require several blood draw or sampling at a particular time; it is very important to follow the proper instructions during the sampling in order to achieve better reliability of test results) can affect test results [3,4]. Failure to follow recommendations for fasting requirements before and/ or during blood sampling may lead to wrong or even abnormal test results which may result in diagnostic error [6,7]. Croatian pregnant women’s knowledge of the OGTT diabetes mellitus in pregnancy and gestational diabetes [9]. One or more glucose values equal or exceeding diagnostic threshold indicates GD [8,11]

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Conclusion