Predicting the Health-Promoting Lifestyle Profile of Pregnant Women Based on Their Health Literacy Levels: A Cross-Sectional Study.

Aim: Health literacy is considered as key factor to empower women to participate in self-care and child-care activities. The purpose of the present study is to determine the relationship between health-promoting behaviours and health literacy among pregnant women.

Design: A cross-sectional study.

Methods: This study surveyed 308 pregnant women in 2022 using questionnaires, including the Health Promoting Lifestyle Profile II (HPLP II) and the Health Literacy for Iranian Adults (HELIA). Descriptive and inferential statistics were employed to analyse the data by IBM SPSS 23.0 statistics package program.

Results: The mean scores for women's health literacy and health-promoting behaviours were 70.31 ± 13.56 and 135.56 ± 17.38, respectively. The lowest score in the health literacy subscales was related to the appraisal (66.07 ± 17.81) and in the health-promoting lifestyle dimensions was associated with the physical activity dimension (13.87 ± 3.87). There was a significant and positive correlation between health literacy and health-promoting behaviours (r = 0.53, p < 0.001). Among the health literacy dimensions, decision-making showed the strongest correlation with health-promoting lifestyle (r = 0.55, p < 0.001).

Patient or public contribution: The results of this study demonstrated that pregnant women with higher health literacy scores exhibited a higher level of engagement in health-promoting behaviours. Assessing health-promoting behaviours in pregnant women by health providers during prenatal care helps identify dimensions receiving less attention during pregnancy, and solutions can be provided to women to address these issues.