باورهای موثر بر رفتارهای تغذیه ای زنان باردار تحت پوشش مراکز بهداشتی درمانی شهر ساوه

Background and Objectives: A healthy and balanced diet is quite important in life and&nbsp;during pregnancy in particular for health of the mother and her fetus. The aim of this study&nbsp;was to evaluate the effects of beliefs on nutritional practices of pregnant women in Saveh&nbsp;University of Medical Sciences, Iran. Materials and Methods: This was a cross-sectional and analytical study carried out on 260&nbsp;pregnant women in health centers of Saveh University of Medical Sciences. A multiplestage&nbsp;sampling protocol was used. Data was collected based on the health belief model&nbsp;(susceptibility, severity, perceived benefits and barriers, self-efficacy and cues to action) as&nbsp;well as the checklist of practices of pregnant women about diet. Independent t-test, oneway&nbsp;ANOVA and Bivariate (Pearson&rsquo;s) correlation were conducted to analyze the data. All&nbsp;the analyses were performed in SPSS version 21. Results: The mean age of participant was 5 &plusmn; 27.4 and the mean gestational age was 5.5&nbsp;&plusmn;&nbsp;2.4. In this study, a significant correlation was observed in perceived barriers, sensitivity,&nbsp;severity, benefits, barriers and perceived self-efficacy with nutritional practices of pregnant&nbsp;women (P < 0.05). In addition, a significant relationship was found in the levels of their&nbsp;education, employment status and number of pregnancies with nutritional practices (P <0.05). Conclusions: The mean score of health belief model construct in pregnant women was&nbsp;moderate. Therefore, to improve the health of mothers and their children, an educational&nbsp;program based on health belief model for enhancing sensitivity and perceived severity&nbsp;of health workers regarding their health and to increase their self-efficacy and benefits&nbsp;perceived as well as to reduce perceived barriers is recommended.