The effectiveness of an educational session about folic acid on pregnant women's knowledge in Yanbu City, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Background: Folic Acid (FA) is an important nutritional element during pregnancy. It is B vitamin which is found in the natural and complementary source. Deficiency of FA during pregnancy leads to many maternal and fetal complications such as neural tube defect (NTD), birth defect, spontaneous abortion, and megaloblastic anemia. This study aims to assess the effectiveness of an educational session about FA on pregnant women's knowledge in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). Methods: A quasi-experimental design was conducted on sixty-five pregnant women from the outpatient clinic in Yanbu General Hospital (YGH) using pre-test and post-test questionnaire to assess their FA knowledge. A purposeful sampling method was used to involve the study participants. All the findings were analyzed through SPSS. Descriptive statistic was used to first generate information about the study participants, after which a t-test was conducted. Results: The participants had poor knowledge about FA before the session but the level was increased after the session with mean difference 5.49. Majority of the study participants 81.5% had knowledge that FA protects against NTD. While, 70% understood that FA is an important vitamin during pregnancy. There is a significant association between the age, income, working status, age of marriage, and knowledge of participants. Conclusions: An educational session had good effect on pregnant women's knowledge. Health care providers and social media should play more active role to increase the knowledge of FA to pregnant women.