Predictors of health-promoting behaviors in pregnant women referred to Jiroft Ayatollah Kashani Hospital in 2019

Background & Aim: Pregnancy is recognized as an important period in women lives during which, the decisions made by mother about the maintenance and promotion of the health, either herself or the fetus, are important. The aim of this study was to determine the predictors of health-promoting behaviors in pregnant women who referred to Jiroft Ayatollah Kashani Hospital in 2019. Methods: The present work is a cross-sectional study conducted in 2019 on pregnant women who referred to Ayatollah Kashani Hospital in Jiroft. In this study, 235 pregnant women participated that selection was done by convenience sampling method. Data were collected through a researcher-made questionnaire and analyzed by SPSS software version 16 using ANOVA, independent t-test, Pearson correlation and linear regression. Results: The mean age of participants was 29.39 ± 6.88 years. Health-promoting behaviors had a direct and significant correlation with social support (r =0.28, p <0.001), education (r = 0.36, p <0.001), and the source of decision for health (r =0.15, p = 0.02). All three variables of social support, the source of decision-making for health and education were able to predict 23% of changes in health-promoting behaviors (R2 = 0.23, F = 23.76, p <0.001). Conclusion: The results of this study indicate that social support, source of health decision making, and education could predict the performance of health-promoting behaviors in pregnancy. Promotion of womenchr('39')s education about pregnancy and strengthening strategies that help women to make decisions about their health and gain social support; can be used in designing educational interventions to increase womenchr('39')s commitment to health-promoting behaviors in pregnancy.