Knowledge and Practices of High Risk Pregnant Women regarding Ocular Changes and Eye Care during Pregnancy

Abd-Ella, Nadia; Ali, Samah Ali; El-Nemer, Amina

doi:10.21608/mnj.2023.321871

Knowledge and Practices of High Risk Pregnant Women regarding Ocular Changes and Eye Care during Pregnancy

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

¹ Assistant Professor of Woman's Health and Midwifery Nursing- Faculty of Nursing- Mansoura University

² Woman Health and Midwifery Nursing- Faculty of Nursing-Mansoura University,Egypy

³ Professor of Woman's Health and Midwifery Nursing, Faculty of Nursing, Mansoura University, Egypt.

10.21608/mnj.2023.321871

Abstract

Background: Eye is used for almost all activity that performed, that is why vision is sense that is valued for human
beings in general and specifically for pregnant women. Pregnancy-related ocular changes can lead to several potential
consequences throughout the life course of pregnant women. The current study aimed to assess knowledge and practices
of high risk pregnant women regarding ocular changes and eye care during pregnancy. Design: A descriptive cross
sectional study design was used to accomplish the aim of the current study in High-risk unit at Mansoura University
Hospital and outpatient antenatal clinics of New Obstetrics and Gynecology Hospital in Mansoura city. A convenient
sample of 150 pregnant women who were diagnosed as high-risk related pregnancy conditions. One tool was used for
data collection to assess participants' health profile and structured interviewing questionnaire schedule to assess women'
knowledge level about pregnancy-related physiological and pathological ocular changes and pregnant women’ eye
health care practices during pregnancy. Results of this study shows that nearly the half (49.3 %) of the studied women
didn't know that pregnancy changes the physiology of the eye, 39.3% of them didn't know that preeclampsia disturbs
vision,46.7% of them didn't know that eye surgery can manage cataract sight loss, the majority (88.7%) of them didn't
realize that diabetic retinopathy is a common complication for diabetes mellitus and 85.3%of them couldn't define
glaucoma correctly as a damage of the optic nerve due to high intraocular pressure as well as 74% of them had
unsatisfactory level of eye heath care practices during pregnancy. This study concluded that high risk pregnant women
had poor knowledge about pregnancy-related ocular changes and unsatisfactory level of eye heath care practices. Thus, it
is recommended to develop health educational guideline to improve high-risk pregnant women’ awareness about
pregnancy-related ocular changes and eye heath care practices during pregnancy.

Keywords