Fateme Moshirenia, Moradali Zareipour, Mahdieh Joukar, Faezeh Afkhami Aghda,
Volume 24, Issue 6 (2-2025)
Abstract
Background: gestational diabetes is one of the most common diseases during pregnancy, and health literacy of pregnant mothers plays an important role in the prevention and management of the disease. The study aimed to examine and compare the health literacy of pregnant women with gestational and non-diabetic diabetes visiting health centers in the city of Yazd in 1402.
Methods: This descriptive-analytical study was conducted on 206 diabetic and non-diabetic pregnant women; the cluster health center sampling method and pregnant mothers were randomized sampling method. The data was collected using a health literacy questionnaire and analyzed using Chi Square tests, independent t-Tests and variance analysis.
Results: The results of the study showed that the average health literacy score of non-diabetic pregnant mothers (74.26 ± 13.75) was significantly higher than the average health literacy score of diabetic mothers (47.527 ± 21.06) (P< 0.001) and the percentage of diabetic women with insufficient health literacy was reported as 69% and 3.9% of non-diabetic women, which indicates a significant difference in the level of health literacy between diabetic and non-diabetic pregnant mothers (P< 0.001). In addition, diabetic mothers showed an inverse relationship between health literacy and the number of pregnancies and their children, while this trend was not observed in non-diabetic mothers (P< 0.001).
Conclusion: The results of this study indicate that non-diabetic pregnant women have higher health literacy than those with gestational diabetes, highlighting the importance of enhancing health literacy in this group of mothers. Additionally, the strong relationship between health literacy and the mother's diabetes status underscores the need for targeted programs and training to improve health literacy among diabetic pregnant women. Therefore, enhancing health literacy can be crucial in better managing gestational diabetes and improving maternal health outcomes.
