[Investigation on infection and awareness of toxoplasmosis-related knowledge in women with poor pregnant outcomes in Wuxi City].

OBJECTIVE

To investigate the prevalence of infection and awareness of toxoplasmosis-related knowledge among women with poor pregnant outcomes in Wuxi City.

METHODS

A total of 217 women with poor pregnant outcomes from Wuxi City during the period of January 2011 to December 2015 were randomly selected as the study subjects (a study group), while 250 women with normal pregnancy were served as controls (a control group). The sero-prevalence of infection was detected by using ELISA and compared between the study and control groups. The awareness of toxoplasmosis-related knowledge was investigated by using a self-designed questionnaire and compared between the study and control groups.

RESULTS

The positive rate of anti- antibody was 30.88% in the study group, which was significantly higher than that (8.8%) in the control group ( = 36.7, < 0.01). The positive rates of anti- IgG and IgM antibodies were 20.74% and 10.14% in the study group respectively, which were significantly higher than those (6% and 2.8%) in the control group ( = 22.53 and 10.74, both values < 0.01). In addition, the positive rates of anti-, anti- IgG and IgM antibodies were significantly higher in the women with missed miscarriage, natural abortion, stillbirth and birth defect than those in the women with normal pregnancy (all values < 0.05). The awareness rates of "Do you hear about or toxoplasmosis?" ( < 0.01), "Do you know that breeding pet cats or dogs may cause infection?" ( < 0.05) and "Do you know that pregnancy women require the detection of infection?" ( < 0.01) were significantly lower in the study group than those in the control group, while no significant differences were seen in the awareness rates of "Do you know that eating hot pot may cause infection?", "Do you know that the use of chopping block in regardless of cooked and uncooked food may cause infection?", "Do you know that infection may transfer from mother to fetus?", "Do you know that infection may cause adverse pregnant outcomes like abortion, stillbirth or fetal abnormalities ?", and "Do you know that the women infected with during pregnancy require treatment?" between the two groups (all values > 0.05).

CONCLUSIONS

This study demonstrates higher prevalence of infection in women with poor pregnant outcomes than in those with normal pregnancy in Wuxi City. Considering the harm of infection during pregnancy and the low awareness of toxoplasmosis-related knowledge in pregnant women, the health education of toxoplasmosis-related knowledge should be strengthened, especially for pregnant women, so as to reduce the prevalence of infection among pregnant women to improve the better child-bearing and rearing level.