Abstract
BackgroundConsidering that individuals’ health practices can affect the health of both mothers and babies, this study is designed to: (a) assess adolescent pregnant women’s health practices and their relationship with maternal, fetal, and neonatal outcomes; (b) explore the perception of adolescent pregnant women about their own health practices; and (c) recommend some strategies to improve adolescent pregnant women’s health practices during pregnancy.Methods/designThis mixed-method study with the sequential explanatory design has two phases. The first phase (quantitative phase) is a prospective study to assess the adolescent pregnant women’s health practices and its relationship with maternal, fetal, and neonatal outcomes who live in Tehran, the capital city of Iran. A cluster sampling method will be used to select 316 adolescent pregnant women who visit health centers in Tehran. The second phase is a qualitative study designed to explore the adolescent pregnant women’s perception of important aspects and factors of health practices that can affect their health outcomes. In this phase, purposive sampling and in-depth individual interviews will be conducted for data collection. The conventional content analysis approach will be employed for data analysis. In addition to literature review and nominal group technique, the findings of the qualitative and quantitative phases, will be used to recommend some strategies to support adolescent pregnant women to improve their health practices during pregnancy.DiscussionThis is the first study looking into health practices in adolescent pregnant women which will be performed via a mixed-method approach, aiming to develop health practices improvement strategies. It is worth noting that there is no strategic guideline in Iran’s health system for improvement of health practices of adolescents. Therefore, it is hoped that the strategy proposed in the current study can enhance health practices of adolescents during pregnancy and ultimately improve their pregnancy and childbirth outcomes.Ethical codeIR.TBZMED.REC.1397.670.
Highlights
Considering that individuals’ health practices can affect the health of both mothers and babies, this study is designed to: (a) assess adolescent pregnant women’s health practices and their relationship with maternal, fetal, and neonatal outcomes; (b) explore the perception of adolescent pregnant women about their own health practices; and (c) recommend some strategies to improve adolescent pregnant women’s health practices during pregnancy
This is the first study looking into health practices in adolescent pregnant women which will be performed via a mixed-method approach, aiming to develop health practices improvement strategies
The current study provides precise information about the health practices in Iranian adolescent pregnant women, and the factors related to them
Summary
Considering that individuals’ health practices can affect the health of both mothers and babies, this study is designed to: (a) assess adolescent pregnant women’s health practices and their relationship with maternal, fetal, and neonatal outcomes; (b) explore the perception of adolescent pregnant women about their own health practices; and (c) recommend some strategies to improve adolescent pregnant women’s health practices during pregnancy. Adolescents account for approximately 1.2 billion people worldwide, which is one-sixth of the world population [1]. The World Health Organization (WHO) defines an adolescent as any person between ages 10 and 19 [2]. Findings of the 2016 population census in Iran showed that out of 79,926,270 Iranian population, 11,147,381 were adolescents including 5,450,270 females [3]. 10% of babies are born to adolescent mothers, who account for 23% of maternal mortality and complications [5]. Despite the lower rate of adolescent pregnancy in Iran compared to the global rate (nearly 7%), it is expected that changes in human population planning policies will result in an increase in this rate in following years [6]
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