Analysis on awareness of birth defects prevention knowledge among 0-6 years old children's parents in Shenzhen City

Objective To study the awareness of birth defects prevention knowledge among 0-6 years old children's parents, in order to provide reference for health education strategies about birth defects prevention. Methods Uniform designed epidemiologic questionnaire of prevention knowledge about birth defects was adopted. Convenience samplingand cluster random sampling method was employed for medical and health institutions and kindergarten class as unit, respectively. A total of 5 147 cases were identified. Results Awareness rate of birth defects prevention knowledge among population was 80.4% (4 139/5 147), of which young parents in age group ≤ 25-years old was the lowest(629/911,69.0%). Multivariable analysis showed maternal age group, household register and educational degree were influential factors of awareness about birth defects prevention konwledge. Statistically significant difference was found among premarital examination (χ²= 220.945, P<0.001), pregnancy check (χ²=141.297, P<0.001) and prenatal care (χ²=111.586, P<0.001) between awareness group and not awareness group. Conclusions Young parents in age group ≤ 25-years old, population of low educational degree and migrants were the key objects of birth defects prevention knowledge health education, they should be focused on.