Relationship among spirituality and prenatal health factors in a Healthy Start population

Objective: To determine the relationship among spiritual, psychosocial and biophysical dimensions of health during pregnancy for participants in a Healthy Start program in South Carolina.

Method: This was a cross-sectional study of 163 women between 9-36 weeks of pregnancy. They were predominately low-income and African American. Data were collected by Healthy Start staff during intake and home visits. The instruments used were the Daily Spiritual Experiences Survey to assess spirituality, the Perceived Stress Survey to assess perception of stress, the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Survey to detect depressive symptoms, the Medical Outcomes Study Social Support survey to assess number, type, and functionality of the social support network, and the Everyday Discrimination Survey to assess perceptions of everyday discriminatory experiences. Data were also collected on preexisting health conditions, health risk behaviors, and demographics. Research questions were answered by using linear regression analyses to detect relationships among independent variables (i.e., Perceived Stress, Depressive Symptoms, Social Support, and Perceived Everyday Discrimination) with one dependent variable (i.e., Spirituality) after controlling for sociodemographic variables.

Results: During pregnancy, higher spirituality was associated with higher social support (p=0.0292). Age (p=0.0396), income (p=0.0150), and Medicaid status (p=0.0242) were more likely to have influences on spirituality.

Conclusions: Higher spirituality was associated with higher social support during pregnancy in this study population. Increasing spiritual resources and social support services prior to and during pregnancy can potentially improve health promotion efforts for pregnant women.