Healthy Lifestyle Behaviors and Self-Efficacy: The Effect of Education

The aim of study is to examine the effects of education based Social-Cognitive Theory (SCT) and Health Promotion Model (HPM) on health behaviors and self-efficacy levels in women with Gestational Diabetes Mellitus (GDM). The study was a quasi-experimental design and was conducted in the obstetrics service of a university hospital with sixty pregnant women as the sample population. The data was collected using the Health Promotion Lifestyle Profile 11 (HPLP II) Scale and Self-Efficacy Scale (SES) between 1st February and I5th October 2010. Chi-square and independent samples t-test were used for the data analysis. It was observed that there was a significant increase in the average scores of the HPLP II Scale for the intervention group between follow-ups. However, it was also noted that there was no significant difference in the average score-of the SES for groups between follow-ups. The results showed that education had a positive effect in terms of adopting healthy lifestyle behaviors by women with GDM.