Abstract To analyze medication among Chinese women with pregnancy intention, and to provide the data support for promoting the preconception health of the women. Methods: A total of 871 152 women who had participated in the National Free Pre-pregnancy Checkups Project (NFPCP) and had self-reported medication during 2013-2019 were included as the study objects. All the self-reported medications were parsed with the reference of National Essential Drugs List published in 2018. Descriptive epidemiological method was used to analyze the characteristics of the prepregnancy medication of the women, and Chi-square test was used to analyze the distribution differences of the medication according to the baseline characteristics. Results: Up to 2.2% of the women with planning pregnancy had reported medication usage, with a diverse range of drug types being reported. The prepregnancy medications primarily comprised of vitamin/mineral drugs (64.1%), followed by obstetrics, gynecology, and family planning drugs (7.5%), antimicrobials (6.8%), hormones and drugs influencing the endocrine system (6.7%), analgesic /antipyretic /anti-inflammatory /anti-rheumatic /anti-gout drugs (5.4%) and traditional Chinese herbal medicine (5.0%). The women with advanced age, Han nationality, high school education level above, urban household registration, non-farmer occupation, delivery history, history of adverse pregnancy, or overweight or obese had tend to have the higher usage rates of antimicrobial drugs, hormones, drugs influencing the endocrine system, analgesic and antipyretic/anti-inflammatory /anti-rheumatic /anti-gout drugs, and traditional Chinese herbal medicine. Conclusion: The diversity of prepregnancy medications is complex, and which is presenting challenges for ensuring the safe medication usage and the health counselling. During the pre-pregnancy health counselling, attention should be directed towards the medication usage among the women with advanced age, Han nationality, high school education level above, urban household registration, non-farmer occupation, delivery history, history of adverse pregnancy, and overweight or obese. It is crucial for identifying the potential risks of medication-induced pregnancy and embryonic toxicity, thus decreasing the occurrence of the adverse pregnancy outcomes associated with the prepregnancy medication used of the women.
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