Relationship of health practices with depression and maternal-fetal attachment in adolescent pregnant women: a prospective study

Aim: To determine the relationship of health practices with depression and maternal-fetal attachment in adolescent pregnant women. Methods: This prospective study was conducted on 316 adolescent pregnant women with medical records at the health centers in Tehran, Iran. The participants were selected through the complete enumeration. Data were collected using the socio-demographic and obstetrics questionnaire, the Health Practices Questionnaire-II (HPQ-II), the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS), and the Cranley's Maternal-Fetal Attachment Scale (MFAS). The data were analyzed with the Pearson correlation test, the independent t-test, one-way ANOVA, and the general linear model. Results: The mean scores of health practices, depression, and maternal-fetal attachment were 135.3 (SD 9.1, range 34-170), 10.1 (SD 5.4, range 0-30), and 91.6 (SD 8.6, range 24-120), respectively. The results of Pearson correlation test showed that health practices had a significant relationship with depression (r = −0.29) and maternal-fetal attachment (r = 0.37). Results of general linear model showed that an increase in the health practices score led to a significant decrease in depression score during pregnancy [β = −0.10; 95% CI: −0.17 to −0.04] and a significant increase in maternal-fetal attachment score [β = 0.30; 95% CI: 0.19 to 0.40]. Conclusion: There is significant relationship between health practices and depression, as well as maternal-fetal attachment in adolescent pregnant women. Therefore, intervention to improve one of them may improve the other one(s).