Knowledge of pregnant women about venous thromboembolism

Introduction: Venous thromboembolism occurs ten times more often among pregnant women compared to non-pregnant ones. Pulmonary embolism remains the leading cause of death in pregnancy and puerperium. The aim of the study was to investigate knowledge of pregnant or puerperal women about venous thromboembolism. Material and methods: The study was conducted from October 2017 to January 2018 in a group of 204 women. The diagnostic survey method was applied with the use of a self-designed questionnaire. The survey was conducted using Google Form. Results: Knowledge of venous thromboembolism was confirmed by less than 40.0% [CI 33.7, 47.0] of respondents. Less than a quarter of them received the information about the risk of pregnancy-related VTE from medical personnel, about 30% - from the Internet. Over 20% [CI 15.2, 26.1] admitted that they did not know any symptoms of this disease. Conclusions: The survey showed marked deficiencies in knowledge concerning symptoms, risk factors and prevention of VTE among pregnant women. Therefore a special emphasis should be placed on education provided by medical staff in this group of patients.