Determination of Knowledge Requirements and Health Practices of Adolescent Pregnant Women

Background: Health practices in pregnancy could be defined as the activities affecting the health of mothers, fetus and newborns. Objective: To determine knowledge requirements and health practices of adolescent pregnant women. Design: Descriptive study Methodology: The population is composed of adolescents women applying to pregnancy polyclinics of state hospitals for routine antenatal colsultation in Izmir, Aydın and Manisa provinces. 156 pregnant women between 13-21 years of age who accepted participating into the study and consulted to pregnancy polyclinics of state hospitals between March 2008 and March 2009 have composed the research sample. The data of the study was collected by “Self-Description Form” and “Health Practices Questionnaire in Pregnancy” prepared inlusive of literature information by researchers as well as from face-to-face interviews using a questionnaire. Descriptive statistics and t/F tests were used to describe and analyze data. Results: The main three subjects about which the pregnant women required information have respectively been determined as “Problems related to pregnancy and coping with them (73.7%)”, “Antenatal follow-up during pregnancy (72.4%)”, “Tests held in pregnancy (67.3%). A statistically significant difference has been detected between age groups of pregnant women included in the study (t = -2.391, p =0.01), educational status (F = 9.648, p = 0.00), marital status (F = 7.684, p = 0.00), educational status of their husbands (F = 7.934, p = 0.00), working status of their husbands (t = 3.241, p = .00), family type (t = -2.227, p = 0.02), perceived income status (F = 5.800, p = 0.00), planning status of pregnancy (F = 6.057, p =0.00), the number of antenatal follow-up (F = 5.620, p =0.00), status of being visited at home by medical personal (t=2.116, p =0.03), status of being exposed to violence during pregnancy (t = -3.387, p = 0.00) and the mean score of health practice questionnaire. Conclusions: Technically, the care for adolescents during pregnancy and labor does not differ very much from the care for adult pregnant women, although there are a number of problems occurring more often in them. Adaptation of care to the needs of the young girls is, thus, recommended.