Health literacy and quality of life among Iranian pregnant women: The mediating role of health locus of control

Main health challenge of the 21st century is improving quality of life (QoL). This study aimed to investigate the mediating role of health locus of control (HLC) between health literacy and QoL among Iranian pregnant women.

In this cross sectional survey, 400 pregnant women referred to the community health centers of Gonabad, Iran, and completed the demographic, health literacy, QoL, and multidimensional HLC questionnaires during 2015-2016. Descriptive statistics and structural equation modeling were conducted using SPSS 22.0 version and AMOS 24.0 software.

The findings showed that health literacy has a significant positive effect on the physical (β= 0.54, p< 0.001) and mental (β= 0.57, p< 0.001) health. Also, it has a significant positive effect on internal subscale (β= 0.42, p< 0.001) and a significant negative effect on the chance (β= -0.51, p< 0.001) and powerful others (β= -0.33, p< 0.001) subscale of HLC. From HLC subscales, internal HLC had a significant positive effect on physical (β= 0.26, p< 0.001) and mental (β= 0.12, p= 0.010) health, while the effects of chance and powerful others on QoL dimensions were not significant. The findings indicated that internal HLC is a partial mediator between health literacy and physical dimension of QoL.

The results indicate that health literacy can be considered as an effective factor in HLC orientations and can improve QoL. This reflects the need for more attention on health literacy and the recognition of the type of HLC beliefs, especially the internal belief in health promotion programs for pregnant women.