ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Public Health Education and Promotion
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1567038
Knowledge, attitudes, and practices of pregnant women regarding fetal growth restriction: A cross-sectional study
Provisionally accepted
- Obstetrical Department of lishui maternal and child health hospital, Lishui, China
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Objective: To investigate the knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) of pregnant women regarding fetal growth restriction (FGR). Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted from December 2024 to January 2025 in Lishui City, Zhejiang Province, with pregnant women as study participants. A self-administered questionnaire was used to collect demographic information and assess KAP scores. Results: A total of 381 participants were included in the study. The majority were <30 years old (55.12%), pregnant for >32 weeks (56.17%), and with their first pregnancy (48.56%). The mean scores for knowledge, attitudes, and practices were 11.08±5.44 (out of 22, 50.36%), 30.33±3.07 (out of 40, 75.83%), and 37.72±2.99 (out of 40, 94.30%), respectively. Knowledge scores were positively correlated with attitude (r=0.1269, P=0.0132) and practice (r=0.2838, P<0.001) scores. The attitude scores were correlated with the practice scores (r=0.2140, P<0.001). Structural equation modeling (SEM) revealed that knowledge had direct influences on attitudes (β=0.17, P<0.001) and practices (β=0.11, P=0.004). Attitudes had a direct influence on practices (β=0.61, P<0.001). Knowledge had an indirect influence on practices through attitudes (β=0.10, P<0.001). Conclusion: Pregnant women exhibited limited knowledge but demonstrated favorable attitudes and proactive practices regarding FGR. Improving the knowledge about FGR through educational interventions could enhance both attitudes and practices.
Keywords: fetal growth restriction, health knowledge, attitudes, practices, Pregnant Women, Cross-sectional study, Structural Equation Modeling
Received: 10 Feb 2025; Accepted: 25 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Zhu, Ding, Fang, Mei and Xie. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Xiaoe Xie, Obstetrical Department of lishui maternal and child health hospital, Lishui, China
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