Knowledge and Attitude of Pregnant Women 15-49 Years Old About Ultrasound Examinations: A Cross Sectional Study Mahshid Arvan 1,2 , Kolsoum Mohammadnia Motlagh 1,2 , Sodabeh Zare 2 , Mehrdad Gholami 3,4* 1 Student Research Committee, Lorestan University of Medical Sciences, Khorramabad, Iran 2 Department of Public Health, School of Health and Nutrition, Lorestan University of Medical Sciences, Khorramabad, Iran 3 Department of Medical Physics, School of Allied Medical Sciences, Lorestan University of Medical Sciences, Khorramabad, Iran 4 Social Determinants of Health Research Center, Lorestan University of Medical Sciences, Khorramabad, Iran ABSTRACT Introduction: Ultrasound is commonly used in determining the gestational age due to its non-invasive nature and availability. On the other hand, limited health literacy is a common problem in pregnant women visiting healthcare facilities. Considering the importance of maternal and fetal health during pregnancy, the aim of this study was to assess the knowledge and attitude of pregnant women about ultrasound examination and its risks. Material and Methods: This research was a descriptive-analytic study in which 231 pregnant women referred to health centers in 2017 were selected according to inclusion and exclusion criteria. Inclusion criteria were the willingness to participate in the research, having literacy, the age of 15 years to 49 years, and exclusion criteria were having severe emergency conditions, pain, and discomfort when completing the questionnaire, and reluctance to participate in the study. Results: In this research, the age of pregnant mothers ranged from 15 years to 49 years with the mean of 28.31 years ± 5.55 years. The results of the study showed that 35.10% of women experienced their first pregnancy, and for 0.4%, it was their seventh. The results demonstrated that the mean score of knowledge was significant in terms of education (p=0.00), husband's education (p=0.01), and age (p=0.01), but there was no significant relationship with attitude. Also, the mean attitude score in terms of the number of deceased children was significant (p=0.02). Findings indicated that there is no significant relationship between the month of pregnancy, the number of pregnancies, occupation, and number of children with knowledge and attitude (p>0.05). Conclusion: In this study, most women had a negative attitude towards ultrasound, which may be due to the lack of awareness about this subject. This may reflect the inadequacy of the training required by health authorities. Because low health literacy can prevent the proper understanding of health messages and recommendations, it is essential that health workers use effective methods of transferring information to these individuals. Key words: Women, Ultrasonography, Pregnancy, Iran HOW TO CITE THIS ARTICLE: Mahshid Arvan, Kolsoum Mohammadnia Motlagh, Sodabeh Zare, Mehrdad Gholami, Knowledge and attitude of pregnant women 15-49 years old about ultrasound examinations: A cross sectional study, J Res Med Dent Sci, 2019, 7(2): 177-181 Corresponding author: Mehrdad Gholami e-mail✉: gholami.mehrdad@lums.ac.ir Received: 19/03/2019 Accepted: 20/04/2019 INTRODUCTION Ultrasonography as one of the diagnostic radiology methods has good acceptance in patients [1]. It is commonly used in determining the gestational age, femur length, abdominal circumference, head circumference, transverse length of the cerebellum, and many other anatomical measurements of the fetus [2]. Today, three and four-dimensional ultrasonography is the most important tool for evaluating embryonic anomalies [3]. Although epidemiological studies have failed to show the damaging effects of ultrasound in humans [4] as a form of energy, the ultrasound has the potential to produce certain biological effects [5]. The mechanisms by which ultrasound can affect tissues can be generally classified into two broad categories of thermal and non-thermal. Acoustic effects causing biological effects without high temperatures are known as non-thermal mechanisms. The results obtained by non-thermal mechanisms are usually called "mechanical effects" which do not usually change Journal of Research in Medical and Dental Science 2019, Volume 7, Issue 2, Page No: 177-181 Copyright CC BY-NC 4.0 Available Online at: www.jrmds.in eISSN No.2347-2367: pISSN No.2347-2545 JRMDS J o u r n a l o f R e s e a r c h i n M e d i c a l a n d D e n t a l S c i e n c e Journal of Research in Medical and Dental Science | Vol. 7 | Issue 2 | April 2019 177