Comparison of health‐promoting behaviours, eating behaviour patterns and perceived social support in normal‐weight and overweight pregnant women: An unmatched case–control study

Abstract

Aim The interventions based on adopting a healthy lifestyle during pregnancy have conflicting results. This study aimed to compare health‐promoting, dietary patterns and social support in normal and overweight pregnant women. Design An unmatched case–control design was used. Methods A total of 360 pregnant women were selected using multistage cluster sampling and divided into two groups of normal and overweight cases. Data were collected using demographic and obstetrics characteristics, health‐promoting lifestyle, perceived social support and eating behaviour questionnaires. Results The evaluation of the health‐promoting behaviours and dietary patterns demonstrated a significant difference between the mean of total scores and their subdomains including self‐actualization, nutrition, consumption of healthy and low‐fat foods, fast food and sweets, as well as emotional eating and accidental planning. There was no significant difference between the two groups about social support.

Health-promoting behaviors and intermediary social determinants of health in low and high-risk pregnant women: an unmatched case-control study

“…The results showed involved women had a higher body mass index than the control group, which could represent inappropriate nutrition. The results also in line with the results of our previous study on pregnant women [ 7 , 51 ]. While the majority of pregnant mothers want to change their behavior and ability to provide healthy food and physical activity, many women believe such changes are outside their control [ 20 ], according to other researchers.…”

“…This difference can be attributed to the cultural differences and gestational age of study participants, because they studied pregnant women in their second trimester, which women have more stable condition than their third trimester. The difference between scores of two groups were important and the results are comparable with other studies in such a way that in some studies, obese women and overweight women as high-risk pregnancies had lower scores compared to the comparison groups [ 7 , 45 ]. Studies on women with preeclampsia also indicate that health promoting life style behaviors is not so suit in these women [ 2 ].…”

“…Pregnancy is one of the most important and critical period of women’s life [ 3 ], because pregnancy related changes in women’s body makes her a person with new psychological and physical characteristics [ 4 , 5 ]. Sometimes these changes are beyond her control [ 5 , 6 ] and lead to physical and spiritual harms [ 5 ], in such a way that can affect the behavior and lifestyles of pregnant women [ 2 , 7 ]. However, most pregnancies come to an end without difficulty, some women experience complications such as hypertension and diabetes, which put them into high-risk pregnancy category [ 8 , 9 ].…”

Predictors of Health-Promoting Lifestyle Behaviors Among Pregnant Women of Siyari Rural Municipality, Rupandehi, Nepal

“…Physical activity had the lowest score which is in line with the other studies conducted in Iran [18,21],…”

“…The current ndings showed that the total score of HPLP-II among the pregnant women of Siyari Municipality was at a moderate level, which is less than the ndings of earlier studies from Iran [18, [21][22][23], and from Turkey [24]. The variations might be due to the differences in cultural norms, values, and lifestyle habits of the participants.…”