Background: Preconceptional health of eligible couples can be improved by planning about pregnancy before conception. Nationally about half of all pregnancies are unplanned. Preconceptional care is perhaps the most important factor which determines the outcome of pregnancy. This pre-experimental study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of educational package on knowledge & practice regarding pre-conceptional care among eligible couples in selected rural areas of Dharwad.

Method: An evaluative approach with one group pretest-posttest design was adopted for the study. The samples from the selected rural areas of Dharwad were selected using non probability purposive sampling technique. The sample consisted of 50 eligible couples. The tools used for data collection were structured Knowledge and practice questionnaire and educational package was developed. The data analysis was done by using both descriptive and inferential statistics.

Result: Knowledge scores of participants, the findings reveal that the post-test mean knowledge scores was found higher [mean=28.76, SD of 6.15] when compared with pre-test mean knowledge score value which was 20.46with SD of 7.29. The statistical paired‘t’ implies that the difference in the pretest and post-test value was found statistically significant at 5% level (p<0.05) with a paired‘t’ value of 12.07. There exists a statistical significance in the difference of knowledge score indicating the positive impact of educational package. Practice scores of participants, the findings reveal that the post-test mean practice scores was found higher [mean=6.80, SD of 1.19] when compared with pre-test mean practice score value which was 4.54 with SD of 1.64. The statistical paired‘t’ implies that the difference in the pretest and post-test value was found statistically significant at 5% level (p<0.05) with a paired‘t’ value of 12.23.

There exists a statistical significance in the difference of practice score indicating the positive impact of educational package. The computed Chi-square value for association between level of knowledge of eligible couples regarding pre conceptual care and their selected demographic variables is found to be statistically significant at 0.05 levels for sources of information and is not found statistically significant for other socio demographic variables. The computed Chi- square value for association between level of practice of eligible couples regarding pre conceptual care and their selected demographic variables is found to be statistically significant at levels for previous knowledge and source of information and is not found statistically significant for other socio demographic variables.

Conclusion: The findings revealed that, Knowledge of eligible couples regarding preconceptional care was inadequate before the administration of educational package. The educational packagr was effective in increasing the knowledge of participants regarding preconceptional care. Since a very few studies have been conducted regarding this topic in India, so the nurse researcher can take further studies on the same topic.