The effects of social support level perceived during pregnancy on healthy lifestyle behaviors

This study was conducted to determine the effects of social support level perceived by pregnant women on their healthy lifestyle behaviors. This descriptive study was performed in the outpatient clinics for pregnant women and Nonstress Test (NST) room in Istanbul Gaziosmanpasa Taksim Training and Research Hospital from 22.02.2016 to 04.04.2016. The study sample consisted of 329 literate pregnant women without intellectual disability or any pregnancy-related risk. Written consents were obtained from Koç University's Ethics Committee, relevant institutions and the pregnant women. Data was collected by interviews with the pregnant women using the Ministry of Health's Risk Assessment Form, Pregnant Diagnostics Form, Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS), the Healthy Lifestyle Behavior Scale II (HLBS). During assessment of the data, number, percentage, mean were used in descriptive statistics, whereas Mann-Whitney U, Kruskal Wallis and Correlation tests were used in significance tests. In the study, it was identified that 69% of the pregnant women were aged 25 years or above, 65.7% were married for 4 years or more, 56.6% graduated from high school or above, 75.4% had social security and 87.5% were unemployed. Total mean MSPSS score of the pregnant women was 53.86±20.21, while in the subscale, "Family Support" score was 23.06±5.75, which was the highest. Total mean HLBS II score of the pregnant women was 124.44±24.87; in the subscale, the highest mean score (25.11±4.63) was obtained for "Spiritual Development", whereas the lowest mean score (13.08±4.57) was obtained for "Physical Activity". A positive significant correlation was identified between MSPSS and subscale mean scores and between total HLBS II score and subscale mean scores (p<0.05). According to these results, it can be concluded that social support creates a positive impact on healthy lifestyle behaviors and physician, nurse, family and friends are effective on development of these behaviors. It's recommended that nurses provide effective education and consultancy services on the importance of social support in development of healthy lifestyle behaviors and conduct studies on this subject.