Health Promoting Behaviors and Self-efficacy of Physical Activity During Pregnancy: An Interventional Study

Objectives: Health-promoting behaviors during pregnancy are those that encourage or improve health-related quality of life, both maternal and foetal. They also decrease risk factors. The present study aims to investigate the effect of health education on healthpromoting behaviors in pregnant women in Mahshahr, southern Iran Materials and Methods: In this experimental study, 78 pregnant women were selected using multi-stage sampling and were randomly divided into 2 groups each including 39 subjects. The intervention group learned physical activity and health behaviors based on the constructs of self-efficacy through 6 sessions. However, no interventions were performed for the control group. The data were collected using a questionnaire containing demographic information, health-promoting lifestyle, and Exercise Self-Efficacy Scale (ESES) before and one month after the intervention. Then, the data were analyzed using t test, chi-square test, and regression analysis. Results: After the intervention, the mean score of health-promoting behaviors, subscale and physical activity self-efficacy increased in the intervention group, which was significantly different from the control group (P < 0.001). Moreover, the results revealed that all the subscale Health Promoting Lifestyle Profile (HPLP) predictive health-promoting behaviors, with the highest predictive power were related to physical activity ( = 1.045, P < 0.001).