Factors Associated with Mothers' Behaviors in Injury Prevention among Premature Neonatal in Hospital: Applying Health Belief Model

Injuries are one of the major health problems among children worldwide. The aim of this study was to determine the factors associated with mothers' behaviors, in injury prevention among premature neonatal, applying Health Belief Model.

The present study is an analytical cross-sectional study that was performed on 358 mothers with preterm infants admitted to Intensive Care Units of a referral hospital of Hamadan city in 2019. Participants were selected through convenient sampling method. The data collection tools were a questionnaire and a behavior-observation checklist. The questionnaire consisted of the questions about demographic variables, awareness and Health Belief Model constructs. Data were analyzed using SPSS 23 software and AMOS 23 software.

Mothers' injury prevention behaviors had the highest percentages (91.2%) and cues to action had the lowest percentage (58.6%) of the maximum score obtainable among the constructs of the model. The constructs of the perceived benefits (p=0.001), perceived severity (p=0.005), self-efficacy (p=0.010) and cues to action (p=0.040) had significant relation with the mothers' behaviors in preventing injury to premature neonatal. The constructs of Health Belief Model could explain 36% of the variations of mothers’ behavior regarding the care of their premature infant against injury (R2=0.36).

The Health Belief Model has a good fit and is useful in investigating mothers' behaviors in caring for their premature neonatal against injuries.