The Effect of Religious Belief on the Attitudes of Pregnant ’s Toward the Fetal Health

AbstractThe purpose of this study is to identify the effect of religious beliefs on the attitudes of pregnant women toward the health of the fetus. Pregnancy, one of the important periods of life, is a special period in terms of affecting both the mother ’s and the baby’s health. Health beliefs and attitudes are the factors that have effects on mother–baby death rates (mortality)—which is one of the most important criteria showing health level of societies. However, the literature has limited number of studies on this issue. Volunteer partic ipants who applied to the Gynecology and Obstetrics Polyclinic were administered a questionnaire in order to identify the frequency of performing worship practices. Women’s beliefs about their roles in determining their fetus’s health were measured using Fetal Health Locus of Control (FHLC) scal e. FHCL scale is composed of 3 sub-scales which include Internality Locus of Control (FHLC-I), Chance Locus of Control (FHLC-C), and Powerful Others Locus of Control (FHLC-P). Non-normally distributed scale scores were analyzed with Mann–WhitneyU test for two independent groups and Kruskal –Wallis test for three independent groups. The scores obtained from all the sub-scales of the FHLC scale according to the praying groups were statistically significant (p = 0.008,p <  0.001,p <  0.001, respectively). The sub-scale scores were not statistically significant according to the tendency of giving alms (p = 0.269,p...
Source: Journal of Religion and Health - Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research