Vol 11, Issue 3, 2018 Online - 2455-3891 Print - 0974-2441 PERCEIVED RISK AND ABILITIES FOR HEALTH PRACTICES RELATED TO PREVENTION OF TYPE II DIABETES MELLITUS AMONG POSTNATAL MOTHERS WITH GESTATIONAL DIABETES MELLITUS BENCY BHASY, LINDA VARGHESE*, ASWATHY KRISHNAN, LEKHA VISWANATH Department of OBG Nursing, Amrita College of Nursing, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Kochi, Kerala, India. Email: bencybhasy991@gmail.com Received: 27 June 2017, Revised and Accepted: 12 December 2017 ABSTRACT Objectives: The study is aimed to assess the perceived risk and abilities for health practices related to prevention of Type II diabetes mellitus (DM) among postnatal mothers with gestational DM (GDM). Methods: This is a descriptive study involving 60 postnatal mothers at Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences, Kochi. Non-probability convenience sampling technique was used for the study, data collected through semi-structured questionnaire, risk perception survey for developing diabetes is used to assess the perceived risks and self-rated abilities for health practice scale is used to assess abilities for health practices. Result: Most of the postnatal mothers 55% with GDM had an average personal control and 53% of postnatal mother with GDM were high optimistic that they will not develop Type II DM. In case of diabetes risk knowledge, more than half of the mothers 54% with GDM had average perception. Based on health practices, majority of the postnatal mothers 63 % with GDM have average abilities for health practices related to prevention of Type II DM. Conclusion: Strategies should be designed to care for the postnatal mothers with GDM such as early detection and postpartum screening are mandatory to detect future DM. Keywords: Perceived risks, Gestational diabetes mellitus, Postnatal mothers, Type II diabetes mellitus. INTRODUCTION Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is the single strongest population predictor of Type II DM development, and there is at least seven- fold increase in Type II DM in women who have had GDM compared to those with euglycemic pregnancies [1,3]. Many women with a diagnosis of GDM were unaware of the future risk of DM, while others simply do not engage in healthy lifestyle behaviors after delivery. Most of the women have misconception that, GDM only affects them during pregnancy and once the baby is delivered, the complication is no longer a health threat. Numerous research studies in the general population have identified that adoption of a healthy lifestyle such as healthy diet, exercise, and weight loss can prevent GDM, however, there are limited researchers who can focus on usual healthy practices in women with GDM [4]. Most researchers have focused on glycemic control [5] throughout the pregnancy for positive maternal and fetal outcomes, but management has been lacking after childbirth to prevent or delay the development of DM in childbearing women [6]. Hence, the researchers decided to assess the perceived risk and abilities for health practices related to prevention of Type II DM among postnatal mothers with GDM. Subjects and methods Data collection was preceded with 60 postnatal mothers with GDM. Non-probability convenience sampling technique was used for the study. After establishing rapport with the mothers, the importance of the study and procedures involved in the data collection was explained, and informed consent was taken before data collection. Subjects who met the inclusion criteria were taken. Subjects were taken approximately 25 min to complete the questionnaire. Semi-structured questionnaire is used to assess sociodemographic and clinical variables, risk perception survey for developing diabetes (RPS-DD) to assess perceived risk and self-rated abilities for health practice scale to assess health practices. RESULTS Sociodemographic variables were represented in Table 1. Based on clinical variables, in terms of parity 53% of the postnatal mothers were second gravida and 30% of them were grand-multiparous mothers. Majority of the deliveries (60%) were after 37 weeks of gestation. Regarding mode of delivery, 70% of the mothers undergone LSCS and 58% were detected GDM during 28–36 weeks. Based on the treatment taken during the pregnancy, 53% of the mothers were taken insulin [7]. Majority of the mothers (53%) have reported that they had a history of abortion and 30% of them had PCOD [8]. In case of family history, 80% of the postnatal mothers have a family history of DM. Majority of them (76%) had delivered babies with birth weight >3 kg. Regarding perceived risk, most of the postnatal mothers 55% with GDM have an average personal control to prevent the development of Type II DM and 53% of postnatal mother with GDM were high optimistic that they will not develop Type II DM. More than half of them 54% have an average perception about diabetes risk knowledge. When the individual items of Diabetes Risk knowledge are considered, 53% of the mothers give correct response in the item having a blood relative with diabetes and 42% of them have knowledge about having had diabetes during pregnancy will develop Type II DM. High scorers 60% of postnatal mother with GDM have greater belief that health behaviors have benefits for the prevention of Type II DM and lower scorers 40% reflects greater barriers to lifestyle modification for the prevention of developing Type II DM. More than half 55% of the subjects perceived the risk that they have a slight chance and 63% with GDM perceive that changing lifestyle behaviors have moderate chance to reduce the risk for getting diabetes over the next 10 years. Majority (70%) of the postnatal mothers with GDM perceived that recently made change in lifestyle behaviors will reduce the chance of getting Type II DM. © 2018 The Authors. Published by Innovare Academic Sciences Pvt Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons. org/licenses/by/4. 0/) DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.22159/ajpcr.2018.v11i3.20991 Research Article