Identification of health educational needs of women in a vulnerable region

Introduction: Education to promote women's health must be continuous and adapted to the changing needs of each stage of the life cycle.Objective: To identify and describe the health training needs of women attending primary care centers in a Colombian subregion.Methods: Descriptive crosssectional study conducted among women aged 18-44 years attending four primary care centers.After informed consent, participants completed an online questionnaire assessing knowledge according to life-cycle stage: non-pregnant, pregnant, or postpartum.Descriptive analyses were performed, and differences across groups were evaluated using ANOVA and bivariate analyses.Multivariate logistic regression identified determinants of performance.Results: A total of 1,478 women participated (612 non-pregnant, 454 pregnant, 412 postpartum), with a median age of 26 years; 90.4% had low socioeconomic status and 82.8% low educational attainment.Educational needs varied by life-cycle stage: non-pregnant women required training in contraception, menstrual cycle, STIs, cancer screening, and mental health; pregnant women in vaccination and sexuality; postpartum women in depression, puerperal care, childcare, breastfeeding, and newborn vomiting.Knowledge scores differed significantly (p < 0.001): pregnant women scored highest (73.33%), followed by postpartum (57.57%) and non-pregnant participants (52.83%).Differences by educational level were evident.In the non-pregnant group, scores increased from 45.28% (no schooling) to 56.60% (secondary education).Pregnant women showed the strongest gradient, rising from 51.67% to 80.00% from no schooling to higher education.Among postpartum women, scores were lowest with no schooling (30.30%) and stabilized between 54-59% for all educated groups.Regression analysis identified education and municipality of residence as main determinants of performance.Higher education substantially reduced failure probability (OR: 0.16), whereas age increased it slightly (OR: 1.04).Stratified models showed highest predictive capacity among pregnant women (AUC: 0.74).The postpartum model performed poorly (AUC: 0.61).Conclusion: Educational needs differ across the life cycle and are strongly shaped by schooling.Tailored, stage-specific strategies that consider educational level and local context may strengthen maternal and reproductive health knowledge and improve outcomes for women and their children.