Maternal health literacy and pregnancy outcomes in Afghanistan
نویسندگان
1 Psychology Department, Faculty of Economics, Administrative and Social Sciences, Istanbul Gelisim University, Istanbul, Turkey
2 Midwifery Faculty, Khatam Al Nabieen University, Kabul, Afghanistan, 3 School of Medicine, International Campus, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences and Health Services, Yazd, Iran
3 School of Medicine, International Campus, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences and Health Services, Yazd, Iran
4 Life Science, and Biomedical Engineering Application and Research Center, Istanbul Gelisim University, Istanbul, Turkey
doi
چکیده
BACKGROUND: A healthy pregnancy and its outcomes are highly dependent on maternal healthliteracy. This is the first study that targets the association between maternal health literacy andpregnancy outcomes of women in Afghanistan.MATERIALS AND METHODS: This is a cross‑sectional study on 200 women who received aprenatal care program and have given birth at Barchi National – 100 beds hospital in Kabul, thecapital city of Afghanistan. As a convenient sample, they answered Maternal Health Literacy andPregnancy Outcome Questionnaire with 5‑point Likert scales. We tested the correlation betweenmaternal health literacy and pregnancy outcome scores via the Pearson’s correlation coefficient. Thepotential association of socio‑demographic and fertility variables with both maternal health literacyand pregnancy outcome was tested via independent samples t‑test or one‑way ANOVA. All analysiswas performed with a 95% confidence level and a significant level was defined as a P value ≤0.05.RESULTS: The maternal health literacy of Afghan women is inadequate. Maternal health literacyis linked to pregnancy outcome, and both were associated with education level, age, number ofgravidities, number of received care, and time that onset the prenatal care. Nutshell, we found evidenceof a positive and significant correlation between maternal health literacy and pregnancy outcome.CONCLUSION: This study brings forth the novel data on maternal health literacy of Afghan women, themembers of society that face health crises for more than half a century. This study calls for recognitionthat inadequate maternal health literacy in Afghanistan significantly influences prenatal care qualityand perpetuates the biggest challenge for maternal and child health through pregnancy outcomes.
