Food related risks during pregnancy: how much do women know about it?

Background There is an increasing concern about food related risks in women during pregnancy. Usually women gather informations from: Internet, easy to consult, books and magazines, seen as a reliable source, health professionals, perceived as a tailored on the patient source, etc. The aims of this study are 1) to evaluate the perception and the knowledge of food-related risks by pregnant women 2) assessing the sources to which most women rely on. Methods data were collected through an anonymous questionnaire, previously used in another study, handed to all women admitted in the maternity wards of the Hospital ‘Le Scotte’ in Siena from September 2013 to Ferbruary 2014. A total of 260 questionnaires was distributed. An optical system was used to standardize the data collection. The final data were analyzed using odds ratios and X2 test. Results our response rate was 57.3%. More than 90% of the women became interested and received information about the food related risks during pregnancy: 78.5% by the gynecologist and/or at least 45% from the Internet. In addition, we have seen that parity, birthplace and education level may affect the awareness and knowledge of certain aspects of food related risks: foreign women learn from the gynecologist less information than the Italian ones (OR 0:32, p = 0.01); graduated compared with non-graduated are more aware of the problem of Listeria (OR 3.86, p < 0.001); primiparous compared to multiparous consider most dangerous toxo- plasma (p = 0.004). Conclusions The women studied claim to have a good awareness of food- related risks, although it is not always correct. This discrepancy can be due to improper use of information sources; in fact, many of them as internet and friends are not always reliable. So it could be useful to organize a better nutrition education with trained health personnel like midwife, dietitian and gynecol- ogist that may work together to improve women’s knowlerge about food related risks. Key messages More than 90% of the pregnant women received informa- tion about food-related risk: mainly from the gynecologyst (78.5%) and from the Internet (45%). Nationality, level of instruction and parity are variables which influence the information sources and the knowledge of the women about food related risks during pregnancy.