Health-promoting behaviors and intermediary social determinants of health in low and high-risk pregnant women: an unmatched case-control study

BACKGROUND: High-risk pregnancies require increased health and care resources to reduce the severe perinatal consequences. The adoption of a health-promoting lifestyle and social determinants is an important strategy for achieving the desired outcomes of pregnancy. This study aimed to compare intermediate determinants of social health in low and high-risk pregnant women. METHODS: This unmatched case-control study was performed with a ratio of 1: 2 and 300 pregnant women including 200 healthy and 100 pregnant women with gestational hypertension were included using the available sampling technique. Data were collected using socio-demographic and obstetrics, Health-promoting behaviors, Self-efficacy, Perceived stress, and Social support questionnaires by the self-report method. RESULTS: There was no significant difference in the demographic characteristics between the two groups, except for the spouse's education status. The total score of health-promoting behaviors and social support in the healthy group was significantly higher than women with gestational hypertension. However, the perceived stress in women with gestational hypertension was significantly higher than in the healthy group. In the multivariate analysis, those women with high stress [AOR 1.13, 95% CI (1.08–1.18)] and whose Spouse’s Educational status was low [AOR 4.94, 95% CI (1.54–15.81)] had higher odds of gestational hypertension than women who haven’t respectively. The development of gestational hypertension was decreased by increasing the score of social support [AOR 0.96, 95% CI (0.93–0.98)]. The results showed that the two variables of social support (β=0.331) and self-efficacy (β=0.215) have the greatest impact on the score of health-promotion behaviors, respectively. Based on regression analysis, 21.2% of the health-promotion behaviors changes could be explained by three independent variables. CONCLUSION: Women with gestational hypertension have unhealthier lifestyles. Having a high level of stress is a risk factor for gestational hypertension but Social support has a protective effect on it. Recognizing the risk factors of gestational hypertension could help the determination of high-risk cases and it is important to pay attention to women's psychosocial to create appropriate sources of social support and provide the necessary action to reduce stress.