Preconception Care: Knowledge, Attitude and Practic e among Health Workers in Alimosho Local Government Area, Lagos St ate, Nigeria

Background: Preconception care is recognized as a critical comp onent to identify risk factors that might affect future pregnancies and development. Health care wor kers’ level of awareness, attitude knowledge could have an impact on the rate of maternal and infant mortality . Objective: This study aimed to assess the level of knowledge, attitude and practice of preconception care among health care workers. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional survey design and a m ulti-stage sampling technique were utilized. Data w as collected using a structured questionnaire from hea lt c re workers in health care facilities in Eti-O sa and Ikeja local government areas of Lagos State. Two hundred and si x health care workers were enrolled, informed conse nt ought and data was analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Science version 21.0 to generate descri ptive (frequency tables, charts) and inferential statisti cs (correlation and regression). Results: The mean±SD age of respondents was 32.5±1.613 years ; 127 (61.7%) were single and more than half (58.3%) were females. Slightly more than half of th e respondents (116;56.3%) were doctors and majority (88.3%) of the respondents knew what preconception care is. Th e level of knowledge was high (85.9%); 79.1% had a positive attitudinal disposition towards preconception care nd 78.2% had a high level of practice. Practice ha d a significant relationship with attitude of health workers (r = 0 .144; p = 0.039) and contributed to only 2.1% of th e change in practice. The knowledge of health workers had a neg ative correlation with attitudinal disposition (r = -0.139; p = 0.046) but only contributed to 1.9% of the change i n attitude. Conclusion: Practice of health workers in respect to preconcept ion care needs improvement. Further studies are recommended to explore other factors influencing pr actice of preconception care in Nigeria.