INVESTIGATING HEALTH LOCUS OF CONTROL AMONG WOMEN WITH GESTATIONAL DIABETES AND ITS RELATIONSHIP WITH DEMOGRAPHIC VARIABLES

Gestational diabetes is one of the common conditions which entails high risk pregnancies and leads to adverse pregnancy outcomes. Regarding treatment and reduction of complications and adverse pregnancy outcomes، psychological variables such as internal and external health locus of control has important role in self care and self control of gestational diabetic women. Therefore، the purpose of this study is to determine health locus of control among women with gestational diabetes and its relationship with demographic variables. A descriptive correlational design was used in the study. One hundred pregnant women with the diagnosis of gestational diabetes in their last month gestational age were continuously recruited from four educational hospitals and health centers. The instrument for data collection was a questionnaire. Regarding validity and reliability of the instrument، we used content validity and Chronbach’s alpha for internal consistency. Descriptive statistics and data analyses were performed using the SPSS statistical software for Windows. In this study، 46% of the subjects had low internal health locus of control، 54% high locus of control with responsibility on their health. Also the different dimensions of external locus of control were consisted of chance، doctors and others. Fifty percent of the subjects had low external locus of control (chance)، 39% high locus of control، 61% low external locus of control (doctors)، 50% high locus of control (doctors)، 50% low external locus of control (others) and 50% high external locus of control. In general، with the calculation of z score، the highest frequency of the different aspects of health locus of control was doctors. There were significant relationships between locus of control and some demographic variables. According to the study، doctors as the highest frequency of the dimensions of external health locus of control has significant role on the patients’ health and diseases. Therefore the therapeutic relationships between doctors and clients could be important. Also، there was a significant relationship between external health locus of control (chance) and the subjects’ educational status. It seems that this factor should be considered in health education and self care strategies، especially in women with gestational diabetes.