Barriers Affecting Utilization of Postpartum Glucose Tolerance Screening Test among Gestational Diabetic Women

Background:Severalprofessional societies and organizations around the world recommend postpartum glucose tolerance testing in women with a history of GDMto reduce the risk of gestational diabetes.Aim & design: A descriptivestudy design was conducted aiming to assess the barriers affecting utilization of postpartumglucose tolerance screening test among gestational diabetic women.Sample: a purposive sample of 486 pregnant women was chosen for this study.Setting:at the postpartum ward of Ain Shams Maternity Hospital. Tools: the study utilized a structured interviewing questionnaire named "mother’s knowledge regarding postpartum glucose tolerance screening test and barriers affecting their utilization with post-partum glucose test".Results: It was discovered that 59.6% of the samples tested had an incorrect knowledge of postpartum glucose tolerance screening test. Furthermore, 75.1% of the women in the study did not utilize postpartum glucose tolerance screening test. Thus, health team barriers accounted 78.6% of women, followed by women’s barriers which accounted for 65.0% of them as barriers affecting utilization of postpartum glucose tolerance test.Conclusion: more than half of studied sample have incorrect overall knowledge of PPGS. Most of studied sample did not utilize PPGS andmore than three-quarters of the studied sample reported “health team factor” as the most main barrier preventing them to utilize the screening test and a statistically significant relationship was observed between the utilization of the studied sample and the total factors of PPGS affecting their utilization. Recommendations: Design and implement an educational program for women with gestational diabetes to encourage them to participate in postpartum glucose tolerance screening test.