• Alemayehu Mekonnen, Jenny Doust, Dereje Gete, and Gita D Mishra.
• Australian Women and Girls' Health Research Centre, School of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD 4006, Australia. Electronic address: a.mekonnen@uq.edu.au.
• Prev Med. 2025 Jan 16: 108227108227.

IntroductionWhile preventive healthcare guidelines recommend that pregnant women or those planning pregnancy engage in preventive care and maintain healthy lifestyles, it is unknown whether women engage in these activities before conception. We examined the association between maternal status and participation in preventive health checks and healthy lifestyle practices.MethodsWe included 4447 women from 1989 to 95 cohort of Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health, categorised into three groups: pregnant women, women in preconception period, and women who were neither pregnant nor trying to become pregnant between surveys one to six. Generalised estimating equation was used for analyses.ResultsAt the sixth survey when women were aged 24-29, 7 % and 32 % of women in the preconception period did not have their blood pressure and weight checked, respectively. Concerning healthy lifestyles during preconception period, 37 % of women did not meet the minimum physical activity guidelines; 64 % and 85 % of women, respectively, did not meet the recommended serves of fruits and vegetables; 92 % consumed any level of alcohol; and 31 % tried other illicit drugs. Women in the preconception period were more likely to have their weight checked (OR 1.83; CI 1.39, 2.41) and to abstain from using illicit drugs (OR 1.12; CI 1.01, 1.26) than other women who were not trying to become pregnant.ConclusionsThere were no differences in most behaviours between women in preconception period and in other women who were not pregnant. More awareness of preconception health is required to encourage women to engage in preventive activities.Copyright © 2025. Published by Elsevier Inc.

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