Survey of Pregnant Women's Awareness and Compliance with Antenatal Care in the Light of Health Literacy

OBJECTIVES: Our aim was to assess the awareness and compliance with antenatal care of gravidas in the light of health literacy.

METHODS: A quantitative cross-sectional study was conducted in 2023. Primiparas in their second or third trimester were selected online, with targeted sampling (N=130). Data were collected with a self-administered and a standardized (HLS-EU) questionnaire. χ2 test, correlation analysis and one-way ANOVA were calculated with SPSS 26.0 (p<0,05).

RESULTS: Almost half of the respondents had secondary education, ½ lived in urban area. 29.23% of the sample had insufficient, 53.08% had „problematic”, while only 14.62% had excellent health literacy. The health literacy of 37.69% was considered insufficient in the prevention area, 23.85% in health promotion, and 29.23% in the competence related to the healthcare system. 9.2% of the pregnant women had no prior knowledge of the process of antenatal care, and only 42.3% has adequate knowledge. The mean knowledge level regarding antenatal care was not affected by health literacy (p>0.05). As of knowledge regarding childbirth, 48% achieved maximum score. Mean knowledge levels about childbirth were similar in the individual groups of the level of health literacy of the sample (p>0.05). The health behavior of the respondents proved to be adequate, which was positively influenced by the prevention subscale within health literacy (p<0.05), while on the other hand, this was not confirmed in the case of the health promotion subcategory (p>0.05). The compliance with antenatal care was measured to be adequate, which did correlate with the knowledge of the tasks of antenatal care (p>0.05).

CONCLUSIONS: While health literacy and knowledge are low, gravidas’ knowledge about childbirth is more extensive. The future task of the antenatal care team is to focus on the education about antenatal care, on increasing pregnant women’s health literacy and on familiarizing adolescents with the antenatal care system.