Background: Prenatal care is the correct implementation of principles that aim to maintain the health of the mother and her baby. The failure to provide effective prenatal care will lead to an increase in premature birth, low birth weight infants, and maternal and infant mortality. Accordingly, this study aimed to investigate the effect of a training intervention based on self-efficacy and health literacy on pregnancy outcomes in pregnant women. Methods: This interventional study adopted a pre-test and post-test design with a control group. The participants in the study were 49 women who visited Bahrabad Healthcare Center in Mehrestan County and were placed into the intervention group (25 persons) and the control group (24 persons) in 2022. The inclusion criteria were having literacy, not completing any medical education course or programs, and a gestational age of less than 20 weeks. The data in this study were collected using the Health Literacy Scale, the Pregnancy Outcome Questionnaire, and the Sherer’s General Self-Efficacy Scale. After administering the pre-test to the participants in both groups, the training intervention was conducted in eight face-to-face sessions for the participants in the intervention group. The data collected in the pre-intervention and post-intervention phases were analyzed using paired samples t-test, independent samples t-test, and analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) at a significance level of P<0.05 to assess differences between groups. Results: The data from this study indicated that the training intervention significantly improved the self-efficacy (t=-2.466; P=0.021) and health literacy (t=-2.163; P=0.041) of the participants in the intervention group. The findings also showed a significant difference in pregnancy outcomes between the intervention and control groups (t=-7.180; P<0.001). These results indicated that the training intervention had a positive impact on participants’ pregnancy experiences and outcomes. Conclusion: This study revealed that training interventions are effective in promoting self-efficacy and health literacy, which in turn lead to improved pregnancy outcomes. The findings also highlighted the importance of incorporating training programs into routine prenatal care to improve maternal and newborn health. Future research should focus on long-term follow-up and examine the impact of different educational strategies on larger populations.
Zohreh Oghabian (Wed,) studied this question.