The Effect of Physical and Mental Health and Health Behavior on the Self-Rated Health of Pregnant Women.

Eunwon Lee,Jiyoung Song

doi:10.3390/healthcare9091117

Abstract

Self-rated health (SRH) is an evaluation tool to assess an individual’s level of health, including both general health and personal experience. There have been existing studies on women’s SRH; however, few studies have been on pregnant women’s SRH and its associated factors. This study investigated the SRH of pregnant women and their factors using the Korea Community Health Survey. The chi-squared test and multivariable logistic regression were used to investigate the effects of demographic, physical, and mental health and health behaviors on the SRH of pregnant women. As a result of the study, 54.0% out of 1032 pregnant women had good SRH. Their SRH score was good when they were young, economically active, and living in cities. Poor SRH was observed with depression, hypertension, and after experiencing a fall. Good SRH was found when they exercised and slept for more than 8 h a day. This study is the first to observe the SRH of pregnant women and its related factors in South Korea.

Highlights

Health of Pregnant Women.Childbirth can cause long-lasting health problems for women as they need to adapt to physiological processes and a new environment as a mother [1]
It is necessary to conduct a comprehensive evaluation of the overall health status of pregnant women by using self-rated health (SRH), which is a strong predictor of future disease morbidity and mortality [7,8]
The SRH of pregnant women diagnosed with diabetes was 1.08-fold than that of undiagnosed women

Summary

Introduction

Childbirth can cause long-lasting health problems for women as they need to adapt to physiological processes and a new environment as a mother [1]. The importance of women’s health is emphasized in that the risk factors exposed to pregnant women are directly related to the health of the fetus and that the health of the mother affects the newborn and the rest of the family [2,3]. Pregnancy and childbirth are important processes within women’s health, with a large proportion of women experiencing this at least once in their lives. The health problems of pregnant and childbearing women should be considered significant. It is necessary to conduct a comprehensive evaluation of the overall health status of pregnant women by using self-rated health (SRH), which is a strong predictor of future disease morbidity and mortality [7,8]

Objectives

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion