Social support in the pregnant and non-pregnant women and its associated dimensions

Background and Purpose: Social support is considered as a facilitator of health behaviors in women. This study aimed to evaluate and&nbsp;compare the status of social support and its associated dimensions in pregnant and non-pregnant women. Methods: This analytical study was conducted on 310 pregnant and non-pregnant women referring to the health-care centers of&nbsp;Zarqan city in Shiraz, Iran in 2011. Participants were selected via convenience sampling. Data collection tools included demographic&nbsp;questionnaire and Social Support Appraisals (SS-A) scale. Data analysis was performed in SPSS V.16 using descriptive (frequency,percentage, mean, and standard deviation) and inferential statistics (Chi-square, T-test, and Pearson&rsquo;s and Spearman&rsquo;s correlationcoefficient).&nbsp; Results: In non-pregnant women, mean of the total social support was 40.08&plusmn;2.80, and mean scores of support from friends, spouse,&nbsp;family and others were 12.08&plusmn;1.33, 14.02&plusmn;1.56, 14.53&plusmn;0.96 and 13.54&plusmn;1.09 respectively. Among pregnant women these values were&nbsp;39.52&plusmn;2.85, 11.72&plusmn;1.59, 14.54&plusmn;1.12, 14.38&plusmn;1.06 and 13.41&plusmn;1.18, respectively. The total support and support from friends were&nbsp;significantly higher in non-pregnant women compared to pregnant women (P = 0.05 and P = 0.03, respectively). On the other hand,&nbsp;support from the spouse was significantly higher in pregnant women compared to non-pregnant women (P = 0.01). Moreover, a&nbsp;significant correlation was observed between the total scores of social support and employment status of spouse among pregnant&nbsp;women (P<0.01). Also, significant associations were found between social support and employment status of spouse (P<0.01),&nbsp;mother&rsquo; availability (P<0.05), and education status (P<0.05). Family support in pregnant women had a significant relationship with&nbsp;the employment status of spouse (P<0.05), father&rsquo;s availability (P<0.01), and mother&rsquo;s availability (P<0.05). In addition, there was a&nbsp;significant correlation between the social support from others and employment status of the pregnant women (P<0.05). Conclusion: According to the results of this study, there were significant differences in the total scores of social support and mean&nbsp;scores of support from the spouse and friends between pregnant and non-pregnant women. It seems that physical and psychological&nbsp;changes during pregnancy largely influence the perception of expecting mothers towards social support.