The effect of group counceling on knowledge and performance of prenatal care in pregnant adolescents in the Kurdish regions of Iran

Background and Aim : Pregnancy and prenatal care in adolescents are one of the most importantchallenges in all countries, especially countries with different culture. The perpose of this study was toinvestigate the effect of group counceling on knowledge and performance of prenatal care in pregnantadolescents in the Kurdish regions of Iran.Methods : This educational randomized experimental study was conducted on pregnant adolescentsattending the health centers of the Kurdish city of Mahabad in 2017. After random sampling of four healthcenters as intervention and control centers, the 16-20 weeks nulliparos adolescents eligible to the studyfilled out the caring knowledge and performance questionnaire by using the available sampling method.Finally, 102 pregnant adolescents who responded to less than 50 percent of the questionnaire were assignedto two intervention and control groups by permutation block method. For the pregnant teenagers in theintervention group, 6 sessions of group counseling about prenatal care were held. The control groupreceived the routine prenatal care. One month after the end of the consultation, the questionnaires wereagain filled out by both intervention and control groups.Results : In contrast to the control group, the mean score of adolescents knowledge about prenatal careincreased after the intervention (17.51 up to 24.67), and showed a significant difference with control group(P <0.05). In addition, the mean scores of adolescent care performance increased (5.80 to 10.33), andshowed a significant difference with the control group (P <0.05). Conclusion: The results of this study showthe positive effects of prenatal care counseling on increasing knowledge and improving the performance ofpregnant adolescents.Conclusion : The present study emphasized the need for organizing training and group counseling sessionsfor pregnant adolescents in order to improve their knowledge regarding prenatal care as and to boost theirperformance in this regard

Keywords:

pregnant adolescents , prenatal counseling , knowledge , performance