OBJECTIVETo understand the awareness rate of macrosomia related knowledge and influencing factors among pregnant women in Zhejiang province and provide evidence for the improvement of pre-gestational and prenatal care.

METHODSA face to face questionnaire survey was conducted among 1 512 pregnant women selected through multistage cluster random sampling from 20 counties (district) in Zhejiang. Macrosomia-related awareness and related factors were analyzed.

RESULTSA total of 1 494 valid questionnaires were analyzed, the awareness rate was 40.7% for macrosomia diagnostic criteria (95% CI: 38.2%-43.2%), 55.0% for the cause of macrosomia (95% CI: 52.4%-57.6%) and 62.4% for prevention related knowledge (95% CI: 59.9%-64.9%) and the awareness rate of both the cause and the prevention related knowledge was 49.0% (95% CI: 46.4%-51.6%). Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that the third trimester of pregnancy (OR = 1.906, 95% CI: 1.128-3.221), urban residence (OR = 1.335, 95% CI: 1.014-1.756), educational level of junior college (OR = 2.474, 95% CI: 1.635-3.744) and educational level of regular college or above (OR = 2.072, 95% CI: 1.338-3.209), receiving health education about health pregnancy (OR = 1.936, 95% CI: 1.509-2.484) and self-learning about the knowledge of health pregnancy (OR = 2.065, 95%CI: 1.338-3.189) were the influencing factors to the awareness rate of macrosomia diagnostic criteria and prevention related knowledge of macrosomia among pregnant women. The awareness rate of the cause and prevention related knowledge of macrosomia was higher in older age group (OR = 2.103, 95% CI: 1.330-3.323).

CONCLUSIONAmong the pregnant women in Zhejiang, the awareness rate of macrosomia diagnostic criteria was less than 50%. Therefore, it was necessary to strengthen the health education during pre-gestational and gestational periods among reproductive women, especially the education about pregnancy health in rural area.