EVALUATION OF EXPOSURE TO POSSIBLE TERATOGENIC AGENTS IN PATIENTS AT HU-FURG : A CROSS-SECTIONAL STUDY

Abstract

The present work is a cross-sectional study whose objective is to evaluate the prevalence of the use of possible teratogenic agents by pregnant women at the Federal University Hospital of Rio Grande during the period April to June 2009. In order to achieve this, a group of medicine students was trained, and a standard questionnaire was developed, which included socio-demographic variables and questions related to life styles. The results, which were digitized and analyzed by the statistic program Epi info 6.0, showed that from the 295 interviewed women, 97,28% of them affirmed to have had pre-natal assistance, 83% had used medicines and around 27% had smoked during pregnancy. Eighteen per cent of the sample consumed alcohol and 60% confirmed that they had had health problems during pregnancy.