Determination of Knowledge Requirements and Health Practices of Adolescent Pregnant Women

• Main Authors: Aynur Saruhan, Ahsen Sirin, Oya Kavlak, Aytül Hadimli, Emre Yanikkerem, Sezer Er Güneri, Emine Sen
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Professor Despina Sapountzi-Krepia 2012-01-01
• Series: International Journal of Caring Sciences
• Subjects: Young pregnant women; Knowledge requirements; Health practices
• Online Access: http://internationaljournalofcaringsciences.org/docs/13.Adolescent%20pregnant%20women.pdf

Background: Health practices in pregnancy could be defined as the activities affecting the health of mothers, fetus andnewborns.Objective: To determine knowledge requirements and health practices of adolescent pregnant women.Design: Descriptive studyMethodology: The population is composed of adolescents women applying to pregnancy polyclinics of state hospitals forroutine antenatal colsultation in Izmir, Aydın and Manisa provinces. 156 pregnant women between 13-21 years of age whoaccepted participating into the study and consulted to pregnancy polyclinics of state hospitals between March 2008 andMarch 2009 have composed the research sample. The data of the study was collected by “Self-Description Form” and“Health Practices Questionnaire in Pregnancy” prepared inlusive of literature information by researchers as well as fromface-to-face interviews using a questionnaire. Descriptive statistics and t/F tests were used to describe and analyze data.Results: The main three subjects about which the pregnant women required information have respectively been determinedas “Problems related to pregnancy and coping with them (73.7%)”, “Antenatal follow-up during pregnancy (72.4%)”, “Testsheld in pregnancy (67.3%). A statistically significant difference has been detected between age groups of pregnant womenincluded in the study (t = -2.391, p =0.01), educational status (F = 9.648, p = 0.00), marital status (F = 7.684, p = 0.00),educational status of their husbands (F = 7.934, p = 0.00), working status of their husbands (t = 3.241, p = .00), family type (t= -2.227, p = 0.02), perceived income status (F = 5.800, p = 0.00), planning status of pregnancy (F = 6.057, p =0.00), thenumber of antenatal follow-up (F = 5.620, p =0.00), status of being visited at home by medical personal (t=2.116, p =0.03),status of being exposed to violence during pregnancy (t = -3.387, p = 0.00) and the mean score of health practicequestionnaire.Conclusions: Technically, the care for adolescents during pregnancy and labor does not differ very much from the care foradult pregnant women, although there are a number of problems occurring more often in them. Adaptation of care to theneeds of the young girls is, thus, recommended.