‘The newest vital sign among pregnant women attending women wellness and research Centre in Qatar: a cross-sectional study’

Abstract

Background Health literacy is a vital strategy to consider when designing health-promoting programs, and health literacy is a priority in Qatar’s national health agenda. In the context of pregnancy, inadequate health literacy has been linked to several adverse outcomes among pregnant women such as unplanned conception, smoking, and lack of multi-vitamin intake. Given the paucity of data, this study aimed to assess the level of health literacy and its determinants among pregnant women in the State of Qatar. Methods An analytical cross-sectional design was utilized. First, we piloted the measurement tools on 10% of the calculated sample size. Accordingly, the items of the measurement tools were revised. Next, we utilized a structured questionnaire to interview the participants about their socio-demographic characteristics, pregnancy-related factors, and the Newest Vital Sign Tool. A chi-square test was employed to investigate the association level among variables, with significance set to P < 0.05. A logistic regression model was used to identify the factors associated with a low literacy level. Results We found that almost four in 10 pregnant women (n = 138,45.4%) had inadequate health literacy. Furthermore, the insufficient level of health literacy was significantly associated with low educational background, decreased household income, and primigravida. However, uncontrolled glycaemia was the only significant predictor of inadequate health literacy through logistic regression. The scale was found to be reliable, with a calculated Cronbach’s alpha of 0.8. Conclusions Low health literacy is common among pregnant women in the State of Qatar. Thus, public health officials should focus on delivering tailored health literacy interventions to pregnant women in the country.

Health literacy among pregnant women in the United Arab Emirates: The Mutaba’ah study

“…Findings from this study are in agreement with studies conducted in Qatar, 29 Iran, 30 and Turkey 31 that found that lower levels of education, low income, and unemployment were associated with low health literacy levels among pregnant women. 29 – 31 Likewise, health literacy was significantly associated with factors such as employment status and level of education among female primary care patients in Korea and Serbia. 32 , 33 A current study indicated that women who have adequate literacy levels tend to worry less about the birth.…”

Awareness of Nutrition and Supplements Among Pregnant and Preconception Women: A Real-World Study in Vietnam

“… 25 It was shown to be a reliable and valid HL measure, validated against standard HL assessments such as the Test of Functional Health Literacy in Adults. 25 , 26 The NVS has been studied in several countries in general community samples 26–29 and in pregnant women, 30 and thus supports internationally comparable HL research. Literature searches conducted before the study did not identify any Vietnamese-language versions of the NVS that had been used or validated for HL screening in Vietnamese populations.…”

Real-world insights on nutritional awareness and behaviors among preconception and pregnant women in three Asia Pacific countries

“…The NVS is a brief HL screening instrument used to assess functional HL (38). Originally developed in English and Spanish, and validated in the United States, the NVS has been adapted and validated for use in other languages and countries in general population settings (39)(40)(41)(42), and in various groups, including caregivers of children (43) and pregnant women (44). As a brief instrument, the NVS was considered suitable for this research program due to its ease of use and acceptability to research subjects.…”