Nawabi, Farah ORCID: 0000-0002-9433-1390 (2022). Promoting Health Literacy in Pregnant Women using a Lifestyle Intervention. PhD thesis, Universität zu Köln.

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Abstract

Pregnancy is a unique time during which a woman is responsible for both her own health and that of her unborn child. Lifestyle choices during pregnancy such as physical activity, diet, alcohol consumption and smoking affect a woman's health, which in turn affects the health and development of the child. It is thus crucial for pregnant women to develop and maintain healthy behaviors that promote good health. One approach that can help is improving health literacy. Increased health literacy has a positive impact on understanding and applying health information and thus can improve health behaviors. However, current research is lacking in terms of investigations into health literacy in pregnant women. This dissertation fills this gap using four dissertation projects (DPs). A lifestyle intervention was developed to promote health literacy in pregnant women as part of prenatal care. The results of the DPs offer discussion approaches for integrating health literacy-sensitive counseling into prenatal care. DP 1 presents the current state of research on health literacy in pregnancy using a systematic review. Here, the level of health literacy and interventions to improve it in pregnant women are presented. DP 2 describes the development of a lifestyle intervention (GeMuKi) and how health literacy is addressed within this intervention. DP 3 addresses the development and evaluation of a knowledge-based questionnaire to assess pregnant women's knowledge on lifestyle topics. This forms part of the objective health literacy assessment in the lifestyle intervention. DP 4 evaluates the effectiveness of the lifestyle intervention (measured both objectively and subjectively) on improving pregnant women's health literacy. The results of DP 1 suggest that research in health literacy among pregnant women is scarce and requires more attention. There is a lack of studies that measure health literacy and efforts to improve it through interventions. The intervention developed in DP 2 includes a comprehensive lifestyle counseling and is integrated into the regular antenatal appointments. As part of the intervention, pregnant women are actively involved in the lifestyle counseling to positively influence health literacy. In DP 3, the developed questionnaire with a total of eight items is used to assess pregnant women's knowledge on lifestyle topics. The results show gaps on certain lifestyle topics. This concerns topics such as breastfeeding and recommended weight gain during pregnancy, which need special attention in counseling. In DP 4, the evaluation of the lifestyle intervention regarding health literacy shows that approximately 66% of the study participants had adequate health literacy. The intervention was not able to improve subjectively measured health literacy, while a significant, positive effect was achieved in improving objectively measured health literacy.

Item Type: Thesis (PhD thesis)
Creators:
CreatorsEmailORCIDORCID Put Code
Nawabi, Farahfarah_nawabi@hotmail.deorcid.org/0000-0002-9433-1390UNSPECIFIED
URN: urn:nbn:de:hbz:38-641092
Date: 25 October 2022
Language: English
Faculty: Faculty of Medicine
Divisions: Faculty of Medicine > Gesundheitsökonomie > Institut für Gesundheitsökonomie und Klinische Epidemiologie
Subjects: Medical sciences Medicine
Uncontrolled Keywords:
KeywordsLanguage
GesundheitskompetenzUNSPECIFIED
health literacyUNSPECIFIED
Date of oral exam: 25 October 2022
Referee:
NameAcademic Title
Hautmann, ChristopherPD Dr.
Kribs, Angela MariaPD Dr.
Refereed: Yes
URI: http://kups.ub.uni-koeln.de/id/eprint/64109

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