Predicting the Health-Promoting Lifestyle Profile of Pregnant Women Based on Their Health Literacy Levels: A Cross-Sectional Study.
Nastaran Rafat, Fatemeh Bakouei, Hajar Adib-Rad and 2 others
PMID 39731456WHAT IT FOUND
Pregnant women with higher health literacy reported more health-promoting behaviours.
Lower appraisal and physical activity scores suggest where nurses might focus prenatal education, but the study did not test whether this changes behaviour.
Key findings
01Health literacy and health-promoting lifestyle were positively correlated (r = 0.53, p < 0.001).
02In adjusted regression, higher health literacy, higher BMI and attending childbirth preparation classes were associated with higher health-promoting lifestyle scores.
03The lowest health literacy domain was appraisal (66.07 ± 17.81), and the lowest lifestyle domain was physical activity (13.87 ± 3.87).
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The study was cross-sectional, so it cannot show that higher health literacy causes healthier behaviours. Participants were recruited by convenience sampling from prenatal clinics in two hospitals in one Iranian city, so the results may not apply to other settings. The study measured reported health literacy and reported health-promoting lifestyle at the same time; it did not test an intervention or follow women over time. Women with mental disability or severe illness were excluded, so it says little about those groups.
Declared interests
The authors declare no conflicts of interest. Babol University of Medical Sciences funded the study.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that improving health literacy will increase pregnant women's health-promoting behaviours. This was a cross-sectional survey, so it found an association at one time point, not a tested effect.