Pregnancy Weight Management Health Literacy Questionnaire

Overview

Worldwide obesity has continued to increase over the past decades. Among the adult women, the overweight and obesity rates in Taiwan are much higher than that of women in nearby Asian countries. In particular, the body mass index of women with low health literacy exceeds the normal range before pregnancy. Without proper supervision, the increase in body weight during pregnancy may result in multiple maternal complications, affect the newborn's health, and increase unnecessary medical expenses in Taiwan's health care system. Thus, assessing pregnant women' s health literacy to manage their body weight is of importance. However, currently, there is no appropriate instrument available in Taiwan to assist health practitioners in assessing the health literacy of pregnant women for weight management. The aim of the study is to develop an instrument to measure the health literacy regarding weight management of pregnant women and examine its psychometric properties.

This study will use a multiphase prospective longitudinal design. While developing the items of the instrument based on the review of the literature, five content experts will be invited to participate in the study for examining the appropriateness of the generated items. Upon the approval of the Institutional Review Board, a convenience sample will be recruited to establish face validity. Then the instrument will be refined according to the report derived from the pretesting. The content experts will then review the revised instrument again, and another 330 primigravida women will be enrolled in the study for assessing the psychometric properties. The validity and reliability of the instrument will be examined through evaluating the internal consistency reliability, split-half reliability, concurrent validity, and predictive validity. Health practitioners can use this newly developed instrument to assess pregnant women's health literacy to help manage their weight gain during pregnancy. By utilizing this instrument, health practitioners can provide individually tailored nursing care to improve the effectiveness of their weight management.

Conditions