THE EFFECT OF THEORY-BASED EDUCATIONAL INTERVENTION FOR WEIGHT MANAGEMENT IN THE PRE-PREGNANCY PERIOD

Fertility problems and adverse pregnancy outcomes increase in obese / overweight women. Because weight loss is not possible during pregnancy, pre-pregnancy period is the best time to intervene to lose weight. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the effect of educational intervention based on the health belief model on weight management behaviors of women in the pre-pregnancy period referred to comprehensive health centers in Bukan city.

This clinical trial study was performed on 68 women. Participants were selected by multi-stage sampling method and randomly divided into intervention and control groups. The pre-test was done using a questionnaire for both groups. After implementing four educational intervention sessions based on the health belief model in the intervention group, the post-test questionnaire was completed one month and three months later in both groups. Data were analyzed in SPSS software ver. 17.0 using descriptive (mean and standard deviation) and inferential (independent t-test, the chi-square test, and analysis of variance of repeated measurements) statistics. The p<0.05 was considered significant.
 

Before the intervention, the groups had no significant difference in terms of demographic characteristics and the mean of the model constructs. There were significant differences between intervention and control group one month after intervention in terms of mean scores of perceived benefits, perceived severity, perceived sensitivity of practice guidelines, and self-efficacy (P<0.05). The mean scores of all model structures in the two groups were statistically different three months after the intervention (p<0.05). However, no significant difference was observed regarding the mean BMI of the women after intervention between the groups (p>0.05).

The health belief model is a suitable intervention model to change behaviors related to weight management of overweight/obese women in the pre-pregnancy period.