Skip to main content
Key Specialties
Cardiology Diabetology Endocrinology Gastroenterology Geriatrics and Gerontology Gynecology and Obstetrics Hematology Infectious Disease Internal Medicine Nephrology Neurology Oncology Pediatrics Respiratory Medicine Rheumatology Surgery
Congress Coverage
2024 ACC Congress 2023 ESMO Congress 2023 EASD Congress 2023 ERS Congress 2023 ESC Congress 2023 EHA Congress 2023 ASCO Annual Meeting
Clinical Collections
Advances in Alzheimer’s

At a glance: The ONWARDS insulin icodec trials

A round-up of the ONWARDS phase 3 clinical trials evaluating the novel weekly insulin icodec in people with diabetes.
ADVANCED SEARCH
Log in
Top
Reproductive Health
Published in: Reproductive Health 1/2018

Open Access 01-12-2018 | Research

Experiences related to health promotion behaviors in overweight pregnant women: a qualitative study

Authors: Azita Fathnezhad Kazemi, Sepideh Hajian

Published in: Reproductive Health | Issue 1/2018

Login to get access

Abstract

Background

The adoption of health behaviors by pregnant women causes their improved health and achievement of appropriate pregnancy outcomes as well as improving the quality of life of the mother and infant. Limited studies have examined such behaviors in pregnant women, especially in overweight mothers. The purpose of this study was to explore the experiences of overweight pregnant women in relation to lifestyle changes during pregnancy to improve their health.

Methods

This qualitative study was carried out with content analysis approach in Tabriz-Iran in 2017. Using purposive sampling, pregnant women with the Body Mass Index of overweight at the preconception were selected considering other inclusion criteria and the sampling was continued to saturate the findings. The data were collected by the first author through semi-structured face-to-face interviews with 32 overweight pregnant women through 18 deep individual interviews and three group interviews. The MAXQDA software version 10 was used for data analysis. Data strength was confirmed by participants and external control.

Results

Most participants were Primigravida 20 (62.5%) and with high-level education 25 (78.1%). Qualitative data analysis led to the emergence of three main themes: “physical self-care”, “mental self-care”, and “risk perception”. The first two themes present the nature of health promotion behaviors in overweight pregnant women; the third theme expresses their feelings and perception of behaviors related to health promotion.

Conclusion

Health promoting behaviors include behavioral and cognitive actions resulting from a perception of the risk caused by overweight pregnant mothers. Therefore, pregnancy is the right time to evaluate behaviors and to use high motivation of women to guide them in choosing healthy behaviors and helping them to adhere to health related behaviors.
Literature
1.
Chhim D. Comparison of health-promoting lifestyles of family nurse practitioner students and non-nursing students. Long Beach: California State University; 2011.
2.
Cyphers NA, Clements AD, Lindseth G. The relationship between religiosity and health-promoting behaviors in pregnant women. West J Nurs Res. 2017;39(11):1429-46.
3.
Lin Y-H, Tsai E-M, Chan T-F, Chou F-H, Lin Y-L. Health promoting lifestyles and related factors in pregnant women. Chang Gung Med J. 2009;32(6):650–61.PubMed
4.
Gharaibeh M, Al-Ma’aitah R, Al Jada N. Lifestyle practices of Jordanian pregnant women. Int Nurs Rev. 2005;52(2):92–100.CrossRef
5.
Gokyildiz S, Alan S, Elmas E, Bostanci A, Kucuk E. Health-promoting lifestyle behaviours in pregnant women in Turkey. Int J Nurs Pract. 2014;20(4):390–7.CrossRef
6.
Auerbach MV, Lobel M, Cannella DT. Psychosocial correlates of health-promoting and health-impairing behaviors in pregnancy. J Psychosom Obstet Gynecol. 2014;35(3):76–83.CrossRef
7.
Tol A, Tavassoli E, Shariferad GR, Shojaeezadeh D. Health-promoting lifestyle and quality of life among undergraduate students at school of health, Isfahan University of medical sciences. J Educ Health Prom. 2013;2:11.
8.
Norouzinia R, Aghabarari M, Kohan M, Karimi M. Health promotion behaviors and its correlation with anxiety and some students’ demographic factors of Alborz University of medical sciences. J Health Promot Manag. 2013;2(4):39–49.
9.
Johnson RC, Schoeni RF. Early-life origins of adult disease: national longitudinal population-based study of the United States. Am J Public Health. 2011;101(12):2317–24.CrossRef
10.
Forbes S, Barr SM, Reynolds RM, Semple S, Gray C, Andrew R, et al. Convergence in insulin resistance between very severely obese and lean women at the end of pregnancy. Diabetologia. 2015;58(11):2615–26.CrossRef
11.
Gebler L, Charuvastra M, Silver D. Nutritional deficiencies associated with obesity. J Obes Weight Loss Ther. 2015;5(252):2.
12.
Dodd JM, Turnbull D, McPhee AJ, Deussen AR, Grivell RM, Yelland LN, et al. Antenatal lifestyle advice for women who are overweight or obese: LIMIT randomised trial. BMJ. 2014;348:g1285.CrossRef
13.
O'Brien CM, Cramp C, Dodd JM. Delivery of dietary and lifestyle interventions in pregnancy: Is it time to promote the use of electronic and mobile health technologies. Semin Reprod Med. 2016;34(2):22-7.
14.
Martorell R, Khan LK, Hughes ML, Grummer-Strawn LM. Obesity in women from developing countries. Eur J Clin Nutr. 2000;54(3):247.CrossRef
15.
Kelishadi R, Alikhani S, Delavari A, Alaedini F, Safaie A, Hojatzadeh E. Obesity and associated lifestyle behaviours in Iran: findings from the first national non-communicable disease risk factor surveillance survey. Public Health Nutr. 2008;11(3):246–51.CrossRef
16.
Kazemi AF, Hajian S, Ebrahimi-Mameghani M, Khob MK. The perspectives of pregnant women on health-promoting behaviors: an integrative systematic review. Health Promot. 2016;8:1995.
17.
Hui A, Back L, Ludwig S, Gardiner P, Sevenhuysen G, Dean H, et al. Lifestyle intervention on diet and exercise reduced excessive gestational weight gain in pregnant women under a randomised controlled trial. BJOG Int J Obstet Gynaecol. 2012;119(1):70–7.CrossRef
18.
Thompson EL, Vamos CA, Daley EM. Physical activity during pregnancy and the role of theory in promoting positive behavior change: A systematic review. J Sport Health Sci. 2017;6(2):198-206.
19.
Baheiraei A, Mirghafourvand M, Mohammadi E, SM-A C. The experiences of women of reproductive age regarding health-promoting behaviours: A qualitative study. BMC Public Health. 2012;12(1):1.CrossRef
20.
Drayton-Brooks S, White N. Health promoting behaviors among African American women with faith-based support. ABNF J. 2004;15(5):84-90.
21.
Johnson P, Kittleson M. Qualitative exploration of health behaviors and the associated factor among university students from different cultures. Int Electron J Health Educ. 2003;6:14–25.
22.
Thaewpia S, Howland LC, Clark MJ, James KS. Relationships among health promoting behaviors and maternal and infant birth outcomes in older pregnant Thais. Pacific Rim Int J Nurs Res. 2013;17(1):28–38.
23.
Edvardsson K, Ivarsson A, Eurenius E, Garvare R, Nyström ME, Small R, et al. Giving offspring a healthy start: parents' experiences of health promotion and lifestyle change during pregnancy and early parenthood. BMC Public Health. 2011;11(1):1.CrossRef
24.
Higgins PG, Clough DH, Frank B, Wallerstedt C. Changes in health behaviors made by pregnant substance users. Int J Addict. 1995;30(10):1323–33.CrossRef
25.
Sui Z, Dodd JM. Exercise in obese pregnant women: positive impacts and current perceptions. Int J Womens Health. 2013;5(1):389–98.CrossRef
26.
Sui Z, Turnbull D, Dodd J. Overweight and obese women’s perceptions about making healthy change during pregnancy: A mixed method study. Matern Child Health J. 2013;17(10):1879–87.CrossRef
27.
Hashemi MA, Yousofi A, Hashemi MR. The effect of inter-ethnic cultural relationships on universalism in Iran. International Journal of Sociology and Anthropology. 2017;9.
28.
Sharafkhani R, Khanjani N, Bakhtiari B, Jahani Y, Tabrizi JS. Physiological equivalent temperature index and mortality in Tabriz (the northwest of Iran). J Therm Biol. 2018;71:195–201.CrossRef
29.
Hossein MA, Kargar Maher MH, Afsharnia F, Dastgiri S. Prevalence of congenital anomalies: a community-based study in the northwest of Iran. ISRN Pediatr. 2014;2014.
30.
Graneheim UH, Lundman B. Qualitative content analysis in nursing research: concepts, procedures and measures to achieve trustworthiness. Nurse Educ Today. 2004;24(2):105–12.CrossRef
31.
Esperat C, Feng D, Zhang Y, Owen D. Health behaviors of low-income pregnant minority women. West J Nurs Res. 2007;29(3):284–300.CrossRef
32.
Onat G, Aba YA. Health-promoting lifestyles and related factors among pregnant women. Turkish J Public Health. 2014;12(2):69.
33.
Connelly M, Brown H, van der Pligt P, Teychenne M. Modifiable barriers to leisure-time physical activity during pregnancy: a qualitative study investigating first time mother’s views and experiences. BMC Pregnancy Childbirth. 2015;15(1):100.CrossRef
34.
Loke AY, Poon CF. The health concerns and behaviours of primigravida: comparing advanced age pregnant women with their younger counterparts. J Clin Nurs. 2011;20(7–8):1141–50.CrossRef
35.
Higgins P, Frank B, Brown M. Changes in health behaviors made by pregnant women. Health Care Women Int. 1994;15(2):149–56.CrossRef
36.
Viau PA, Padula CA, Eddy B. An exploration of health concerns & health-promotion behaviors in pregnant women over age 35. MCN Am J Matern Child Nurs. 2002;27(6):328–34.CrossRef
37.
Everson-Hock E, Johnson M, Jones R, Woods H, Goyder E, Payne N, et al. Community-based dietary and physical activity interventions in low socioeconomic groups in the UK: A mixed methods systematic review. Prev Med. 2013;56(5):265–72.CrossRef
38.
Carpenter CJ. A meta-analysis of the effectiveness of health belief model variables in predicting behavior. Health Commun. 2010;25(8):661–9.CrossRef
Metadata
Title
Experiences related to health promotion behaviors in overweight pregnant women: a qualitative study
Authors
Azita Fathnezhad Kazemi
Sepideh Hajian
Publication date
01-12-2018
Publisher
BioMed Central
Published in
Reproductive Health / Issue 1/2018
Electronic ISSN: 1742-4755
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12978-018-0660-y

Other articles of this Issue 1/2018

Reproductive Health 1/2018 Go to the issue

Research

Perceptions of counsellors and youth-serving professionals about sexual and reproductive health services for adolescents in Soweto, South Africa

Research

The correlation between raised body mass index and assisted reproductive treatment outcomes: a systematic review and meta-analysis of the evidence

Research

Antenatal tobacco use and iron deficiency anemia: integrating tobacco control into antenatal care in urban India

Review

Group antenatal care models in low- and middle-income countries: a systematic evidence synthesis

Study protocol

A comprehensive mental health care program for women with polycystic ovary syndrome: protocol for a mixed methods study

Study protocol

The Pregnancy and Influenza Multinational Epidemiologic (PRIME) study: a prospective cohort study of the impact of influenza during pregnancy among women in middle-income countries