Preconception Care: Intention to Action- An Intervention Based on the Planned Behavior Theory for Maternal and Neonatal Health: A Randomized Clinical Trial

Abstract

Background and Objectives: Preconception care involves health promotion, screening, and interventions for women and men to reduce the risk factors with the potential effect on their future pregnancies; the present research is aimed at investigating the effect of planned behavior theory on the knowledge, attitude, subjective norms, perceived behavior, self-control, intention, and practices of preconception care. Methods: This is a controlled randomized trial study to examine the impacts on the intentions and conductance of the preconception care among the women referring to a marriage consulting center. To this end, 110 women referring to the marriage counseling centers of Asad Abad city in Iran were selected and then divided into two groups. The educational sessions were held twice a week in four 60-minute sessions for the intervention group, while the control group received no intervention. Wilcoxon and Mann-Whitney and ϰ2 were employed for data analysis at the significance level of 0.05. The reliability of the tools was evaluated using Cronbach Alpha. Findings: The results indicated a significant difference between the two groups in terms of awareness (14.27 ± 1.53 vs. 5.32 ± 2.95), attitudes (45.89 ± 3.52 vs. 36.36 ± 6.77), subjective norms (30.01 ± 3.34 vs. 26.38 ± 4.10), and perceived behavioral control (23.10 ± 2.06 vs. 18.87 ± 4.61) for the intervention and control groups, respectively (P = 0.001). Also, 89% of the intervention group (vs. 4% of the controls) tried to make the record for preconception care. Conclusion: The theory of planned behavior can effectively improve awareness, attitude, and perceived behavioral control in women. This theory also improved the behavioral intention of women toward preconception care. The midwives and physicians are recommended to use this educational method in health centers to motivate the women to take preconception counseling with the help of health providers. Trial registration: This study was registered in the Iranian registry of clinical trials with the code IRCT2015121425529N1 in 2016.04.17