Relationship between health literacy and self-efficacy of diabetic pregnant women

Introduction: Gestational diabetes is associated with fetal complications, including fetal abnormalities including: macrosomia, intrauterine growth restriction, premature delivery, preeclampsia, retinopathy and cardiomyopathy. Maternal complications such as preeclampsia, retinopathy, kidney failure, and increased cesarean delivery are also common. health literacy in pregnant mothers, it is defined as "acquiring the ability of mothers to obtain, analyze and understand the basic health information and services they need in order to be able to participate in their health issues and make the right decisions"(۱). The concept of self-efficacy of Bandura's theory of social cognition is taken and includes a person's trust and assurance of being able to perform self-care tasks optimally. So that, in this way, the person has more favorable results from self-care is achieved(۲). Therefore, the present study was carried out with the aim of " Relationship between health literacy and self-efficacy of diabetic pregnant women ".Methodology: Data collection was done by searching Scopus, Iran Doc, Science Direct, Magiran, Elsevier and Google Scholar and PubMed search engines. Search keywords included: health literacy, self-efficacy, pregnant women and gestational diabetes. A total of ۱۵ articles were found, of which ۱۱ were analyzed.Result: The results of the present study showed that according to the Pearson correlation test, there is a positive and significant relationship between health literacy and self-efficacy of diabetic pregnant women(P<۰.۰۵).Discussion and conclusion: The results of this study were consistent with the results of other studies that health literacy has a positive effect of self-efficacy. Therefore, it is very necessary to design a systematic and continuous educational program to improve the level of health literacy and self-efficacy of patients with diabetes, which ultimately leads to changes in their behavior and self-care level (۳). It is necessary for health careproviders to design and implement various programs in the form of educational videos, placards, banners, booklets, pamphlets, and especially by holding educational classes to increase the level of awareness of the health of diabetic patients, so that the self-efficacy of these patients will also be higher. Patients with higher self-efficacy are able to better control blood sugar and thus reduce the complications caused by it.

کلیدواژه ها:

health literacy ، self-efficacy ، pregnant women and gestational diabetes