Survey of Health Literacy during pregnancy and Its Relationship with Prenatal Care

Abstract

Background and Objective: Health literacy in pregnant mothers is a cognitive and social skill that shows the motivation and ability of women to properly access, understand, and use the information to maintain the health of themselves and their children. The aim of this study was to investigate health literacy during pregnancy and its relationship with prenatal care.Materials and Methods: This is a cross-sectional and descriptive-analytical study on 121 pregnant women who referred to the health service centers in Fariman, Iran. Cluster-multistage random sampling method was used to select participantes in 2020. The maternal health literacy and Pregnancy (MHLAPQ) questionnaire was used to collect data. Data were analyzed using SPSS 20 software based on t-test, Pearson correlation coefficient and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA).Result: The mean score of maternal health literacy was 58.7 ±37.16. There was also a significant relationship (p <0.05) between health literacy score and mother's education, household income, number of children, place of residence, pregnancy weight gain, supplementation and, dairy products. According to the Pearson correlation coefficient, health literacy significantly correlated with pregnancy outcome (p = 0.000) and birth height (p = 0.005). Conclusion: level of health literacy in new mothers was adquated in this study. Health policy-makers should simplify the health literacy training program for pregnant and lactating women to reduce the various factors that affect their health literacy.

Keywords

• health literacy
• prenatal care
• pregnant women