Effect of education based on health belief model on pregnancy weight gain in pregnant women Gonabad city/Iran

Nutrition in pregnancy has an important role in fetus and mother health and also the pregnancy outcome. One of the significant changes related to nutrition is weight gain of pregnant women as one of the influencing indicators which is measured by Body Mass Index (BMI). This study was conducted to determine nutritional education effect upon pregnancy recommended weight gain in pregnant women on the basis of health belief model (HBM) in Gonabad city. Material and methods: This is a quasi-experimental randomized and controlled study 110 pregnant women referring to Gonabad’s health centers divided in to experimental group (54 ones) and control group (56 ones) participated in the study in the year of 2009. The data of two groups collected by reliable and valid questionnaires during first part of pregnancy care in pre-test stage. Then two educational sessions held for the experimental group. Post test was done for both groups in the last stage of pregnancy care and data analyzed by statistical tests up to significance level P<0.05. Results: Statistical significant differences between the education, parity, abortion, jobs and the mean age of the two groups did not show . The most influencing external cue of action was found wife in experimental group (88.26%) and healthcare workers in control group (51.56%). After the intervention the mean score of knowledge, perceived susceptibility, severity, threat, benefits and barriers and nutritional behavior in the experimental group, where as just knowledge average grade significantly changed in control group after intervention. More over statistical analysis showed significant difference between two groups in gaining recommended weight in pregnancy. Conclusion: While 77.78% of experimental group members achieved recommend MBI, just 32.29% of control group members gained this criterion. This study proved that HBM application in nutritional education was successfully effective to gain recommended weight in pregnancy, so that increasing suitable weight gain reached maximum and unstandardized weight gain reached minimum in accordance with women BMI. Key Words: Body Mass Index, Health Belief Model, Pregnant women, pregnancy nutrition.