by Yared Asmare Aynalem, Pauline Paul, Zohra S. Lassi, Salima Meherali Background Although Ethiopia introduced its first national preconception care (PCC) guideline in 2024, PCC remains rarely integrated into routine practice, and existing studies have largely focused on women’s knowledge and behaviors.
Little is known about how adults navigate PCC within broader social, cultural, and structural contexts. This study provides an in-depth urban Ethiopian analysis of how adults experience and negotiate PCC within intersecting gender, moral, and institutional systems, offering insights beyond individual-level understanding.
Methods An interpretive description design guided semi-structured interviews with 18 adults (10 women, 8 men; 19–45 years) recruited through maximum-variation sampling from two public hospitals in Addis Ababa. Interviews were conducted in Amharic, transcribed, translated, and analyzed inductively.
Data analysis was guided by ID principles, complemented by thematic analysis techniques informed by grounded theory, including line-by-line coding, constant comparison, and analytic memoing. Field notes captured contextual and relational dynamics.
Results Seven interrelated themes highlighted complex dynamics in PCC.
PLOS ONE (Medicine) published a clinical update in Research Highlights on 05 Jun 2026.
The item focuses on Perspectives on preconception care in Ethiopia: Social, cultural, and structural determinants.
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