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Why do women invest in pre-pregnancy health and care? A qualitative investigation with women attending maternity services

Overview of attention for article published in BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth, October 2015
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  • Above-average Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age (54th percentile)
  • Average Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age and source

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7 X users

Citations

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26 Dimensions

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Title
Why do women invest in pre-pregnancy health and care? A qualitative investigation with women attending maternity services
Published in
BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth, October 2015
DOI 10.1186/s12884-015-0672-3
Pubmed ID
Authors

Geraldine Barrett, Jill Shawe, Beth Howden, Dilisha Patel, Obiamaka Ojukwu, Pranav Pandya, Judith Stephenson

Abstract

Despite the importance attributed to good pre-pregnancy care and its potential to improve pregnancy and child health outcomes, relatively little is known about why women invest in pre-pregnancy health and care. We sought to gain insight into why women invested in pre-pregnancy health and care. We carried out 20 qualitative in-depth interviews with pregnant or recently pregnant women who were drawn from a survey of antenatal clinic attendees in London, UK. Interviewees were purposively sampled to include high and low investors in pre-pregnancy health and care, with variation in age, partnership status, ethnicity and pre-existing medical conditions. Data analysis was conducted using the Framework method. We identified three groups in relation to pre-pregnancy health and care: 1) The "prepared" group, who had high levels of pregnancy planning and mostly positive attitudes to micronutrient supplementation outside of pregnancy, carried out pre-pregnancy activities such as taking folic acid and making changes to diet and lifestyle. 2) The "poor knowledge" group, who also had high levels of pregnancy planning, did not carry out pre-pregnancy activities and described themselves as having poor knowledge. Elsewhere in their interviews they expressed a strong dislike of micronutrient supplementation. 3) The "absent pre-pregnancy period" group, had the lowest levels of pregnancy planning and also expressed anti-supplement views. Even discussing the pre-pregnancy period with this group was difficult as responses to questions quickly shifted to focus on pregnancy itself. Knowledge of folic acid was poor in all groups. Different pre-pregnancy care approaches are likely to be needed for each of the groups. Among the "prepared" group, who were proactive and receptive to health messages, greater availability of information and better response from health professionals could improve the range of pre-pregnancy activities carried out. Among the "poor knowledge" group, better response from health professionals might yield greater uptake of pre-pregnancy information. A different, general health strategy might be more appropriate for the "absent pre-pregnancy period" group. The fact that general attitudes to micronutrient supplementation were closely related to whether or not women invested in pre-pregnancy health and care was an unanticipated finding and warrants further investigation.

X Demographics

X Demographics

The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 7 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 115 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
United States 1 <1%
Tanzania, United Republic of 1 <1%
Unknown 113 98%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Bachelor 17 15%
Student > Master 15 13%
Student > Ph. D. Student 13 11%
Researcher 11 10%
Student > Postgraduate 7 6%
Other 19 17%
Unknown 33 29%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Medicine and Dentistry 35 30%
Nursing and Health Professions 20 17%
Agricultural and Biological Sciences 6 5%
Social Sciences 4 3%
Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutical Science 3 3%
Other 13 11%
Unknown 34 30%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 3. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 25 October 2016.
All research outputs
#13,374,110
of 23,577,761 outputs
Outputs from BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth
#2,398
of 4,333 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#124,372
of 276,886 outputs
Outputs of similar age from BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth
#59
of 106 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 23,577,761 research outputs across all sources so far. This one is in the 42nd percentile – i.e., 42% of other outputs scored the same or lower than it.
So far Altmetric has tracked 4,333 research outputs from this source. They typically receive more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 9.0. This one is in the 43rd percentile – i.e., 43% of its peers scored the same or lower than it.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 276,886 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 54% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 106 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one is in the 43rd percentile – i.e., 43% of its contemporaries scored the same or lower than it.