The Role of Health Beliefs and Health Promoting Lifestyle in Predicting Pregnancy Anxiety among Pregnant Women

Background and objective: Pregnancy anxiety in a common problem during pregnancy period that is associated with negative consequences. The current study was conducted in order to determine the role of health beliefs and health promoting behaviors in predicting pregnancy anxiety among pregnant women. Methods: This research was a descriptive- analytical and correlational study. Pregnant women referred to health centers of the Ardabil city for medical cares from the first to ninth month of pregnancy in the second half of 2014 were the population of this study. One hundred and ten women were randomly selected via clustering sampling method from this population; they were asked to fill in the questionnaires- demographic data, Pregnancy-Related Anxiety Question - naire-Revised (PRAQ-R), health belief model questionnaire and Health-Promot - ing Lifestyle Profile (HPLP). The data were analyzed by tests of Pearson correla - tion and multivariate regression. Results: Pregnancy anxiety had negative relationship with perceived suscepti - bility (r = -0.41; p < 0.001), severity of perceived consequences (r= -0.56; p < 0.001), benefits of medical treatment (r= -0.35; p< 0.001), total score of health promoting lifestyle (r= -0.67; p < 0.001), its components, namely health respon - sibility (r= -0.54; p < 0.001), physical activity (r= -0.42; p < 0.001), nutrition (r= -0.42; p < 0.001), spiritual growth (r= -0.55; p < 0.001), interpersonal relation - ships (r= -0.57; p < 0.001), and stress management (r= -0.64; p < 0.001). Re- gression analyses also revealed that 44% of variance of pregnancy anxiety of women was explained by health beliefs and 50% of it was explained by health promoting lifestyle. Conclusion: Positive beliefs about health and health promoting lifestyle play role in reducing pregnancy anxiety. The results of this research propose the necessary of training health beliefs and health promoting life style during preg - nancy period for improving psychological health and coping with pregnancy anxiety.