Study of Pregnancy Health In England (SOPHIE study). v1.0
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Preconception Health Improvement: mixed-methods sequential explanatory study of reproductive-age women in England to inform the development of an intervention to target preconception risk and protective factors to improve maternal and child health
IRAS ID
266321
Contact name
Michael Daly
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Bristol (Research Governance Team, Research and Enterprise Development)
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 11 months, 30 days
Research summary
Research Summary
The outcomes of a pregnancy for mother and baby are influenced by a number of things before conception and in the early weeks of pregnancy. These can either increase or decrease the chance of a negative outcome occurring (i.e. ‘risk factors’, like smoking and obesity and ‘protective factors’, like taking folic acid). These outcomes include things like miscarriage, low birthweight and ‘birth defects’. It is therefore crucial to improve a woman’s health before she knows she is pregnant, which often does not occur for six weeks or later for unplanned pregnancies. We call this ‘preconception health’.Improving knowledge and attitudes relating to preconception health is considered very important to improving the health of children and mothers. However, we currently know little about what women in the UK know and think about preconception health, as well as their use and views of potential ways of improving preconception health. This study will therefore use a survey to assess what reproductive-age UK women know and think about what helps women to be healthy before and during pregnancy and their general views on preconception health. It will also assess whether different groups of women differ in what they know or think, and their use and views of potential intervention channels. This will help us to see if different approaches are needed for different groups.
The questionnaire takes about 15 minutes to complete and will be posted by five GP surgeries to women aged 18-48, with the aim of receiving 770 completed questionnaires to compare differences between groups. In-depth interviews will then be conducted with a smaller subset of women to further explore the survey’s findings (a separate substantial amendment will be submitted for this). The study is funded through a PhD research and training support grant provided by the Medical Research Council.
Summary of Results
Of the 4,330 female patients aged 18 to 48 years who received questionnaires, 835 (19.3%) responded. Women were most aware of the preconception risk factors of diet (86.0%) and physical activity (79.2%). Few were aware of weight (40.1%), folic acid (32.9%), abuse (6.3%); advanced age (5.9%) and interpregnancy intervals (0.2%), and none mentioned interpregnancy weight change or excess iron intake. After adjusting for demographic and reproductive covariates, women aged 18-25-years (compared to 40-48-year-olds) and nulligravid women were less aware of the benefit of preconception folic acid supplementation (adjusted odds ratios (aOR) for age: 4.30 [2.10-8.80], gravidity: aOR 2.48 [1.70-3.62]). Younger women were more interested in learning more about preconception health (aOR 0.37 [0.21-0.63]) but nulligravid women were less interested in this (aOR 1.79 [1.30-2.46]). Women with the lowest household incomes (versus the highest) were less aware of preconception weight as a risk factor (aOR: 3.11 [1.65-5.84]) and rated the importance of preconception health lower (aOR 3.38 [1.90-6.00]). The most acceptable information delivery channels were websites/apps (99.5%), printed healthcare materials (98.6%), family/partners (96.3%), schools (94.4%), television (91.9%), pregnancy tests (91.0%) and doctors, midwives and nurses (86.8-97.0%). Dentists (23.9%) and hairdressers/beauticians (18.1%) were the least acceptable.REC name
South West - Frenchay Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
19/SW/0235
Date of REC Opinion
19 Mar 2020
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion