Perceptions and practices regarding pesticide exposure among pregnant women in a south Indian teaching institution.

Abstract

Agriculture is the primary source of livelihood for about 58% of India's population. In recent years, there have been pressing public health and food safety concerns related to pesticide residues. Pesticides are a class of man-made environmental chemicals that can affect the body's development, growth, and hormone balance. Pregnant women are a particularly vulnerable group when it comes to pesticide exposure. Focusing on this population provides crucial data for designing protective interventions. Hence for formulating effective intervention strategy to combat this problem, proper quantification of the root cause was needed, hence the study was being conducted. Hospital-based, cross-sectional study was conducted among 151 pregnant mothers. The questionnaire was administered by the principal investigator in a simple local language. Chi-square test was done to find the association between socio-demographic variables and knowledge of pregnant mothers about fetal complications due to pesticide. The overall knowledge about pesticide was through newspaper (44.3%) and social media (24.5%) whereas 84.1% believed pesticide has adverse effects on the fetus. It is shown that age <35 years, third trimester participants, educated participants, higher socio-economic status participants showed adequate knowledge about fetal complications due to pesticides. The study concluded that knowledge is adequate about pesticide exposure, but the practice is not. Safe pesticide practices during pregnancy are necessary to protect the developing fetus.