A Study on the Relationship between Health Perception, Prenatal Care Behaviors and Health Promoting Behaviors in Unmarried Pregnant Women

Chung, Kwi Ae

Abstract

PURPOSE: This study was to examine the relationship between health perception, prenatal care behaviors and health promoting behaviors of unmarried pregnant women. METHOD: The subjects were 97 unmarried pregnant women. The data was collected through personal interviews using a questionnaire. Adjusted instruments were the health perception scale developed by Ware, prenatal care behavior scale developed by Lee, and health promoting behavior scale developed by Pender. Data was analyzed by descriptive statistics, t-test, ANOVA, and the Pearson correlation coefficient with SPSS program. RESULT: The mean score of health perception was 3.3, and Resistance-Susceptibility was the highest. The mean score of prenatal care behaviors was 2.9, while that of health promoting behaviors was 2.5. The relationship between health perception and prenatal care behaviors was significant(r=0.268, p=.008). The relationship between prenatal care behaviors and health promoting behaviors was also significant (r=0.633, p=.000).
CONCLUSION
The higher the health perception of unmarried pregnant women, the more they are concerned about good prenatal care behaviors. Unmarried pregnant women did well on health promoting behaviors when they had are high degree of good prenatal care behaviors. Therefore, in order to promote positive health perceptions of unmarried pregnant women, it is necessary to develop and adjust various education and supporting programs.