Evaluation of OGTT awareness level in pregnancy application to pregnancy polyclinic in Düzce University research and application hospital

Purpose: Gestational diabetes is a common condition diagnosed in the course of pregnancy and brings many risks fort he mother and the baby during gestation, delivery and later in their lives. Screening for GDM and taking the necessary precautions on time is of great importance since its complications can be prevented when diagnosed via OGTT during pregnancy. Our aim in this study was to determine the knowledge level regarding GDM, the ways of obtaining information about GDM, the rate of pregnant women who did not want to have OGTT,the reasons for not wanting to have OGTT and the medias effect on health ideas of pregnant women who have applied to Duzce University Research and Application Hospital Obstetric outpatient clinic. Materials and Methods: Our descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted with pregnant women who applied to the obstetrics outpatient clinic at Duzce University Research and Application Hospital between November 2020 and March 2021. Not wanting to participate in the study, being under the age of 18, being a foreing national, being diagnosed with diabetes were determined as exclusion criteria. A total of 31 questions related to OGTT and GDM, including sociodemografic information and obstetric characteristics, were asked. Conclusion: 344 pregnant women with a mean age 28.77±5.6 were included in the study. It was determined that 64.8% of the pregnant women knew how OGTT is performed, 50.9% did not want to have OGTT and 5.2% were hesitant on this issue. 61.6% of pregnant women stated that they obtained information about OGTT from their physician.20.3% of the pregnant women stated that OGTT is harmful and 16.6% of the pregnant women stated that they were undecided about whether OGTT is harmful or not. It has been determined that 80% of those who think OGTT harmful did not have test or do not intend to have it. It was observed that those who said OGTT was harmful did not want to have the test at a higher rate (p<0.001). It was 12 determined that 57.1% of those who think OGTT is harmful have gotten the idea from their social surroundings, 5.7% from television programs, 4.3% from healthcare professionals have the idea that OGTT is harmful. Results: It was determined that pregnant women do not want to have OGTT due to concerns, which are based on unreliable and unscientific information, that it would harm them and their babies. This situation was not effected by the education level and other sociodemografic factors. It is seen that pregnant women do not have sufficient knowledge and awareness about OGTT and healthcare personel do not inform pregnant women adequately about this issue. Healthcare professionals, executives and media have importent responsibilities on eliminating the lack of knowlodge about OGTT and GDM in the society. In order to create awareness, it is necessary to introduce programs that will prevent the public from acquiring false information during pregnancy starting from the prenatal period and to eliminate the information pollution on this subject.