Knowledge, attitude and practice of women referred to health centers of Gorgan on the determining factors of self-care

Self-care means enabling individuals to manage special circumstances، such as illness، chronic diseases and having more control over life. Women are more susceptible to serious health risks such as obesity and overweight compared to men، therefore this study was conducted in the city of Gorgan to determine the knowledge، attitude and behavior of women regarding the self-care behavior. In this descriptive- analytical study، 420 women referred to health centers of Gorgan were recruited through cluster random sampling. Data were collected using the standard general self-care questionnaire. Information such as barriers and facilitators of self-care behavior، knowledge، desire and performing self-care behaviors of individuals were evaluated. Data were then analyzed using descriptive statistics and analytical tests in SPSS software (version16). The mean age of samples was 33. 07 ± 12. 2 years. Among all the tested individuals، 49% (n=206) had a satisfactory knowledge about Self-care، 36. 4% (n=152) had a tendency to perform self-care and 21. 8 percent (n=92) were performing self-care related activities. There was a significant relationship between knowledge and performing self-care (P= 0. 0001)، attitudes and performing self-care (P=0. 0001) and between knowledge and behavior (P=0. 0001). Due to the relative knowledge، attitude and unfavorable performance of individuals، appropriate educational interventions are recommended to increase knowledge. Moreover the awareness and attitude of the participants should also be changed using attitude change techniques such as in-depth interviews and subsequently its improvements will occur.