effects of targeted education on knowledge and attitude of pregnant women regarding eclampsia

background: eclampsia is associated with 14 % of maternal mortality in developing countries. considering that identification of at risk mothers and improving the level of knowledge and awareness of family care experts would lead to better control of the disease and its complication, the aim of this survey was to evaluate the level of knowledge and attitude concerning this disease among pregnant women before and after targeted education. methods: in this prospective before-after trial the level of knowledge and attitude of 70 pregnant women regarding eclampsia was evaluated before and after targeted education using a reliable and valid self-administered questionnaire. the questionnaire included 15 questions of knowledge and 6 questions of attitude based on likert response scale. the data were analyzed by spss software, using anovas and t test. findings: mean score knowledge among studied pregnant women before and after education was 44 ± 20.3 vs. 76.4 ± 16.5, respectively (p<0.05).mean score of attitude among studied pregnant women before and after education was 57.5 ± 19.7 and 92.3 ± 8.4, respectively (p<0.05). 52.4 % and 21.3 % of mothers showed low and very low level of knowledge and attitude, respectively. there was no significant correlation between knowledge and attitude scores of pregnant women with gravity, parity and maternal age. conclusion: the low level of knowledge in more than 50 % of women before education and significant improvement of their knowledge and attitude after education emphasize the necessity of developing and revising education programs for high risk population and family health experts.