Health literacy and prenatal care adequacy index on the outcome of birth weight in pregnant women in Balochistan, Iran

Maternal health literacy, in addition to the quality of prenatal care, is a key factor in controlling the underweight baby. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of health literacy and adequacy of prenatal care on the outcome of birth weight.
A cross sectional study was conducted on 860 pregnant women who were selected by random cluster sampling. The data were collected using the Health Literacy for Iranian Adults (HELIA) and the adequacy of care for pregnancy. The data were analyzed using SPSS windows version 20 by descriptive statistics and regression analysis
The prevalence of low birth weight was 16.5%. The adequacy of the pregnancy index of 33% was inadequate and 67% of women had an average index. The mean level of health literacy was 65.97 ± 1.74 in pregnant women. The adequacy of care for pregnancy was the strongest predictor of birth weight (47%). Health literacy components: understanding (21%), appraisal (13%) and decision-making and applying information (12%) was predicted birth weight.
Prenatal care adequacy index and health literacy were predictors of birth weight, which highlighted the need for more attention to prenatal care and health literacy in health promotion programs for pregnant women.