the effect of education based on health belief model on self-care behaviors of women with high blood pressure in pregnancy

Introduction: hypertension in pregnancy is one of the three main causes of maternal death after hemorrhage and sepsis. education of hypertensive pregnant mothers can be effective in promoting self-care behaviors and ultimately proper control of blood pressure. the use of educational models can be very helpful in this regard compared to traditional methods.objective: this study aims to assess the effectiveness of education based on the health belief model (hbm) in improving the self-care behaviors of pregnant women with hypertension. materials and methods: this is a quasi-experimental study with a pre-test/post-test design that was conducted on 90 women with hypertension in pregnancy who referred to one of the specialized women’s hospitals in rasht, iran, during january-august 2020. the participants were randomly divided into two groups of intervention and control using the random allocation software. the data collection tools included a demographic/obstetric form, a researcher-made hbm questionnaire, and a researcher-made hypertension in pregnancy self-care profile. the hbm-based education was provided to the intervention group at three sessions with an interval of one week. data analysis was done using chi-square test, independent t-test, and ancova. cohen’s d (effect size) was also measured. results: the final data analysis was done on 39 women in the intervention group (mean age: 33.48±4.54 years) and 38 women in the control group (mean age: 32.73±5.93). the difference in the scores of knowledges and hbm constructs was not statistically significant between the two groups at baseline, but it was significant after education (p=0.001). the difference between the two groups was not statistically significant in self-care behaviors at baseline, except for diet/physical activity and disease/stress management (p=0.001). to control the effects of these two variables, ancova was used. after intervention, the difference between the two groups in self-care behaviors was statistically significant (p=0.001). conclusion: the hbm-based education can make pregnant mothers more aware of hypertension and increase their self-care behaviors for proper control of blood pressure.