Health Literacy, Antenatal Care Adequacy Indicator and Delivery Outcomes in Pregnant Women in Zahedan

Abstract

Aims: Paying attention to the health of pregnant women leads to the newborn’s health and ultimately, the health of society. Health literacy and knowledge of antenatal care reduce neonatal and maternal fatality, increase maternal and neonatal health. The current research, therefore, aims to investigate the association of health literacy, antenatal care adequacy indicators, and delivery outcomes. Instrument & Methods: This Descriptive-analytical study was performed on 113 pregnant women attending the health centers of City Zahedan in 2020. Samples were selected by multi-stage method, and data were collected by the questionnaire of maternal health literacy and pregnancy outcomes (MHLAPQ) and a checklist. The Independent t-test, one-way analysis of variance, and Pearson correlation coefficient were used to analyze data by SPSS 21 software; the significant level was <0.05. Findings: In this research, the average score of pregnant women’s health literacy was 54.5±6.9, and 34.5% of women participating in this study had a university education. This research results indicated a significant relationship between prenatal care adequacy and health literacy (p=0.03). A significant relationship was observed between prenatal care adequacy and birth weight (p=0.04). Conclusions: Prenatal care adequacy and health literacy indices were predictors of birth weight, indicating the need to pay more attention to prenatal care and health literacy in health promotion programs.