Abstract:
Good blood glucose control behaviors help pregnant women achieve and maintain normal blood glucose levels. This predictive correlational research aimed to study blood glucose levels in pregnant women with gestational diabetes mellitus, and to examine factors predicting blood glucose control behaviors. The sample was 110 pregnant women with gestational diabetes mellitus who were attending antenatal clinics at a tertiary care hospital in ChonburiProvince. The sample was selected by simple random sampling. Data were collected by demographic and obstetrics questionnaires, health literacy scale, self-efficacy scale, and blood control behaviors. Data were analyzed by descriptive statistics and stepwise multiple regression. Results showed, first, that all pregnant women with gestational diabetes mellitus had normalblood glucose levels two hours after eating. The variables predicting glucose control behaviors significantly were self-efficacy (β = .483, t = 5.933, p< .001) and health literacy (β = .213, t = 2.619, p= .01). Both variables explained 30.1% of the total variance in blood glucose control behaviors (F(1,107)= 6.858, R 2 = .301, p= .01). The results suggest that nurses could improve blood glucose control behavior of pregnant women with gestational diabetes mellitus by promoting self-efficacy and health literacy