Health Promotion and Perception of the Knowledge and Health Promotion Behaviors of the Pregnant Women at Antenatal Clinic at Phrananngklao Hospital

Abstract

The purpose of this quasi-experimental research was to examine the effects of a health promotion program on exercise behavior at antepartum mothers. Pender's Health Promotion Model (1996), Connectionism Theory of Thorndike (cited in Bernard, 1972), the home care were utilized for the conceptual framework. Subjects consisted of 40 antetrapartum mothers, 20 were assigned to a do not receive health promotion and 20 were assigned to an experimental group. Subjects were selected by age, education level, income, and gravidity. The group received routine nursing care and the experimental group received the health promotion program. Nutrients, Exercise behavior, self-care, breastfeeding and abnormal signs in pregnancy were assessed using a modified version of the questionnaires developed by Siriwan Tumcheaw (2002). The instruments were tested for their internal consistency using Cronbach's alpha. They both demonstrated acceptable reliability at .711 and .812 respectively. Data were analyzed using correlation statistics and paired t-test. Major findings were: the mean score of exercise behavior of antenatal mothers in receiving the health promotion program the score was higher than the other group.