the effect of educational intervention about prenatal care on knowledge and attitudes of marriage candidate girls

introduction: each year nearly 529,000 women worldwide die due to complications of pregnancy and childbirth.premarital education can play an effective role in improving the health of the pregnancy.selection of appropriate educational practices leads to more useful education.this study examined the effect of a focus group about prenatal health on knowledge and attitudes of marriage candidategirls in boyer ahmad. methods: this quasi-experimental study was conducted in the city boyer ahmad in 1389.577 girls were elected from the participants in the counseling program within one year bycontinuous available sampling method.data were collected by a researcher made questionnaire including demographic data (age, education and occupation), and 10 knowledge and 10 attitude questions on pregnancy health before and after the intervention. educational intervention was performed as group discussion,and questions and answers during two sessions, one session per week. the participants were arranged in groups of 15 members, and each group was led by one of the family health students as facilitator. findings: average age at marriage for girls was 22.1 ± 4.5. 84.3% of girls were housewives and 15.7% were employed.mean knowledge and attitude of college girls were significantly higher than others.the mean of knowledge and attitude scores increased significantly after the intervention (p ≤ 0.001). discussion: group discussion, and question and answer method raise knowledge of and improve the attitude of girls significantly. considering theimportanceandnecessity ofhealth education about prenatal care;for better use of educational opportunities; group discussion, and question and answer should be used to attract the active participation of girls.