Factors Influencing Health Promoting Behaviours in Women of Reproductive Age in Iran: Based on Pender’s Health Promotion Model

INTRODUCTION: Health promotion behaviours are considered as preventives of non-communicable diseases and key determinants of maintaining and improving the health status. AIM: This study aimed to investigate and identify effective factors on health-promoting behaviours based on Pender model in women of reproductive age from February to April 2017, in Savojbolagh, Iran. METHODS: This cross-sectional study is conducted on 240 women aged between 15 to 49 years in Savojbolagh, Iran, in 2017. The questionnaire consisted of several items, including socio-demographic characteristics, health-promoting lifestyle profile-II (HPLP-II), self-efficacy, social support and constructs of Pender’s health promotion model. SPSS-18 software has been applied for statistical analysis. RESULTS: The mean age of the women was 31.10 ± 7.29 years. Total HPLP-II score was 106.64 ± 11.93. The highest and the lowest mean in the subscales were belonged to nutrition and physical activity, respectively. According to the bivariate analysis, the total HPLP-II score is significantly related to prior health-related behaviour (p = 0.000). There was a statistically significant relationship between stress management and the variables including perceived benefits, perceived barriers, prior health-related behaviour, situational influences, commitment to a plan of action (p < 0.05). Also, health responsibility had a statistically significant relationship with self-efficacy (p < 0.05). CONCLUSION: According to our results, it can be inferred that there is a problem with the HPBs of women. Considering that health-promoting behaviours like physical activity had a low score, it is a necessity to plan and perform interventions for improving health promotion behaviours.