The relationship with weight gain and familial and social characteristics in pregnancy

This study was carried out to determine the relationship between weight gain and familial and social characteristics by convenience sample of 269 pregnant women who attended the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology in Adnan Menderes University Research and Practice Hospital, Turkey from June 2014 to April 2015. The researcher used the pregnant woman self-report form, Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support form (MSPSS) and the Marital Adjustment Scale (MAS) in collection of the data. Pregnant woman self-report form, developed by the researcher, was filled by the pregnant women during the interview. The pregnancy weights and heights of the women was measured by the researcher using the same calibrated weighing instrument (Beurer, GS 49_BMI) during the interview. The dependent variables of the study were the weight pregnant women gained during pregnancy and the independent variables were the familial and obstetric characteristics of pregnant women and their husbands and the scores they received from MAS and MSPSS. Evaluation of the research data was done descriptive statistics, Mann-Whitney-U test, analysis of variance (ANOVA), independent groups t test between two means (Student- t), Kruskal-Wallis test, correlation and multiple regression analysis. P values at <0.05 and p<0.01 level values were considered statistically significant. Most of the women who taken part in the study were of elementary (27.9%) or secondary school (29.4%) graduates, having been living in the Ege Region (84.0%) for the most part of their life, bounded by social security (91.8%), not working in any job (80.3%), officially married (98.9%), living in nuclear families (80.7%), with middle-income (73.8%), before being pregnant didn't have any health problems (82.2%). Their mean age was 28.86 ± 5.61 and median of marriage length was 6.00 ± 7.00. The median gestational age of the pregnant women was 38.30 ± 0.80. Most of the women said to have become pregnant voluntarily (81.0%) and did not experience any health problems (72.1%). Most of the pregnant women were in normal BMI class according to their pre-pregnancy BMI classification (46.8%), and many of whom gained insufficient weight (36.4%), and the median weight taken during pregnancy was 11.50 ± 8.55. In line with the data obtained from the study of pregnant women, as long as the pre-pregnancy BMI increased, weight gain during pregnancy was found to decrease (p <0.01). It was determined that working pregnant women gained excessive weight during their pregnancy, that average weight gain increased in pregnancy, as the monthly income increases, that as the length of marriage increases weight gain in pregnancy decreasing, and that those pregnants who got unwanted pregnancies gained less weight than those who want to become pregnant (respectively p <0.05, p <0.05, p <0.01, p <0.05). As the number of pregnancies, live births and living children increases, weight gain decreases (respectively p <0.01, P <0.01, P <0.01). Within this research, stepwise multiple regression analysis showed that pre-pregnancy BMI, employment status, age, length of marriage, number of live births, and pre-pregnancy weight affects weight gaining (p <0.05, p <0.05, p <0, 05, p <0.05, p <0.05, p <0.05). As the pre-pregnancy BMI, age, length of marriage, number of live births, and pre-pregnancy weight increases during pregnancy, weight gain decreases, on the other hand, if pregnants work during pregnancy, they highly likely to gain weight well over the BMI classification.