"Lead Awareness: The Effect of Health Education Programs on Safeguarding Pregnant Women’s Health During Pregnancy"

Abstract: Lead is considered one of the most important pollutants in the air, land,  and food, and it has a great impact on human health, and it has a great impact on the health of pregnant women. This study aims to evaluate the effect of the health education program on safeguarding pregnant women's health from lead exposure during pregnancy. Design: A quasi-experimental research design was utilized in this study. Setting: The study was conducted at the local unit area in Shubra El-Khema, Egypt, since it was the largest area in population number, with high arithmetic exposure to lead pollution. Sample: A cluster random sample was used to select homes using the village map obtained from the Office of Health at Shubra El-Kheima. City. Tools: Two tools for data collection were used I) A structured interviewing questionnaire assessing demographic characteristics of pregnant women, assessing pregnant women's knowledge regarding hazards of lead pollution, and pregnant women's reported practice regarding lead pollution. II) Observational checklist to assess the indoor and outdoor environment of the house. Result: the current study revealed that, 80% of pregnant women had poor knowledge regarding the hazard of lead pollution- pre-programs improved to 70% of them had good knowledge post-program, on the other hand, 80 % of pregnant women had wrong habits regarding cleaning the house to control the lead pollution pre- program, improved to 75% of them doing the action right post- programs, Also,   75% of pregnant women not done practice regarding nutritional habits that effect lead pollution, improved to 75%  of them done practice post-program, and  75% of them had bad environment pre-program,  improved to 70% the good environment after health education program. A statistically significant difference positive correlation between pre and post-programs p=0.001. Conclusion: there was a correlation between pregnant women's total knowledge, total practice, and total score regarding cleaning the house, nutritional habits to control lead pollution, and observation checklist to control indoor and outdoor lead pollution with highly statistically significant differences pre and post-program ( p<0.001) Recommendations: continuous implementation of health education programs about hazards of lead pollution and its impact on pregnant women health and pregnancy outcomes.