Abstract:
Preconceptive nutritional preparation behavior can prevent anemia pregnancy. This predictive research aimed to explore preconceptive nutritional preparation behavior, and examine predicting factors of this behavior in pregnant women with anemia. A simple random sampling was used to recruit a sample of 180 pregnant women with anemia visiting antenatal care clinic at hospitals in public health region 3. Research instruments composed of preconceptive nutritional preparation behavior, perceived risk of anemia in pregnancy, perceived severity of anemia pregnancy, perceived benefit of preconceptive nutritional preparation behavior, perceived barriers of preconceptive nutritional preparation behavior, and nutritional knowledge questionnaires. Cronbach's alpha coefficient of these questionnaires were .71, .77, .89, .91, .94 and .75, respectively. Data were analyzed by using descriptive statistics, and stepwise multiple regression statistics. The results showed that participants had moderate mean scores of preconceptive nutritional preparation behavior (M = 32.68, SD = 8.29) Factors predicting preconceptive nutritional preparation behavior were nutritional knowledge (β = .278, p< .001), perceived risk of anemia in pregnancy (β = .268, p< .001), and perceived barriers of preconceptive nutritional preparation behavior (β = .176, p< .05). They explained 22% of the variance in preconceptive nutritional preparation behavior findings recommend that maternity nurses should educate reproductive women about nutrition for prevention anemia and encourage them to perceive their risks of anemia in pregnancy, as well as, decrease their obstacles to perform preconceptive nutritional preparation behavior.