THE DEVELOPMENT OF A HEALTH LITERACY PROGRAM TO PROMOTE HEALTH MANAGEMENT AMONG WOMEN WITH GESTATIONAL DIABETES MELLITUS

Abstract

This developmental research aimed to develop a health literacy promotion program for women with gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM). The health literacy framework was used to build the program activities. Instrumentation included a health literacy promotion program, a self-care handbook, and an education plan for nurses. Data collection instruments were a demographic questionnaire, a health literacy questionnaire, and a health behavior questionnaire for pregnant women. CVI of these instruments ranged from 0.84 to 1.00. The reliability coefficients of the health literacy and health behavior questionnaires were 0.63 and 0.60, respectively. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, including frequency, percentage, and standard deviation.

The health literacy promotion program developed for women with GDM included individualized education, practical training in energy calculation and meal planning, and blood glucose monitoring. In the pilot program, all program activities were done as prescribed (100%). Pregnant women showed a great improvement in health literacy, with a mean score of 74.20 ± 17.03 before the program and 88.50 ± 10.82 after the program. Self-management and health behavior scores also improved from 31.80 ± 6.03 to 37.00 ± 6.80, while blood glucose levels decreased from134.30 ± 30.52 to 107.00 ± 21.39.

The findings indicate that the health literacy promotion program should be implemented and tested for effectiveness in an experimental study with women with GDM before integrating it into regular antenatal care.