The relationship between depressive symptoms and health practices behaviors of pregnant women

Objective: This study was conducted to determine the relationship between depressive symptoms and health practices behavior of pregnant women. Material and Method: The sample group of the research in the relational pattern consisted of 250 pregnant women enrolled in the Gunes Family Health Center and Necip Fazil Kısakürek Family Health Center between July 2018 and December 2019. The study included pregnant women who are literate in Turkish, do not have a psychiatric disease requiring the use of medications, have a healthy fetus, and whose pregnancy continues without complications. Research data were collected with "Descriptive Information Form", "Edinburgh Depression Scale (EDÖ)" and "Health Practices In Pregnancy Scale(GSUÖ)".In the evaluation of data; independent t-test, one-way varient analysis (one-way ANOVA), pearson moments product correlation analysis, regression analysis were used. Results: The average age of pregnant women was 28.10 ± 5.09, 22.4% of them were primary school graduates, 75.6% of them did not work, 76.4% of them were planned to be pregnant. It was determined that the mean score of the pregnant women was 7.40 ± 5.02, and the mean EDO total score was 127.08 ± 12.97. There was a negative correlation between age and EDO total score, and a positive correlation between the pregnant woman's and spouse's educational status, employment status, income and social support, and the GSUO total score (p <0.05). There was no significant relationship between age and the total score of GSUO (p> 0.05). There was a negative correlation between the number of people living at the same house and the total score of GSUO (p <0.05). There was no significant correlation between the week of gestation (trimester) and the desired / planning status of pregnancy and the total scores of both the EDO and the GSUO (p> 0.05). There was a statistically significant negative and low-level correlation between the total score of GSUO and the total score of EDO (p <0.05). Conclusion: It has been found that health practices of pregnant women are effective in reducing pregnancy depression symptoms. As a result of the study, it can be said that increasing the importance given to health practices during pregnancy is important in detecting pregnant women who show depression symptoms in the early period. Keywords: Pregnancy, Depression Symptom, Health Practices, Nurse