Effects of a Self-Awareness Promotion Program on Preventive Behaviors Against Low Birth Weight Infants in High-Risk Pregnant Adolescent Women at Surin Hospital
Keywords:
Self-awareness, Low birth weight prevention behaviors, Adolescent pregnancyAbstract
This quasi-experimental study aimed to investigate the effects of an awareness-promoting program on preventative behaviors for low-birth weight infants among at-risk pregnant adolescents. The sample consisted of 60 pregnant adolescents at risk for delivering low birth weight infants who were attending prenatal clinics. The research instruments included an awareness-promoting program applying the conceptual framework of Duvall and Wiklund’s self-awareness theory, and a questionnaire assessing preventive behaviors for low-birth weight infants. The content validity index was .93 and the reliability coefficient was .85. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Chi-square, Fisher’s exact, and t-tests.
The results revealed that after the intervention, the mean score for preventative behaviors for low-birth weight infants in the experimental group was significantly higher than that of the comparison group (t-test = 16.999, p-value < .001). The program resulted in improved preventative behaviors for at-risk pregnant adolescents. Therefore, nurses should implement this program in the provision of services to all pregnant women at risk for low-birth weight infants to reduce the rate of low-birth weight infants and ensure normal birth weight infants.
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