The Effect of Social Media Support on Healthy Lifestyle Behaviours

Not Applicable

Not yet recruiting

• Conditions: Social Media in Developing Healthy Lifestyle Behaviours in Pregnant Women

• Registration Number: NCT07003971
• Lead Sponsor: Istanbul University - Cerrahpasa

Brief Summary

The aim of this study is to examine the effectiveness of a programme to improve healthy lifestyle behaviours based on the Health Belief Model to be offered through Instagram, a social media platform. For this purpose, it is aimed to produce content containing accurate and evidence-based information for pregnant women on social media, to ensure that pregnant women can access the right information quickly and easily, to adopt healthy lifestyle behaviours, to test the effectiveness of the social media platform for the adoption of healthy lifestyle behaviours and to contribute to the formation of a healthier family and society in the long term. In addition, this study is aimed to create a model for the midwifery profession to benefit from the new opportunities created by internet technology outside the clinical field in service delivery.

The population of the study will consist of women with primiparous pregnancies in the first and second trimester. Women who agree to participate in the study will be randomly assigned to the experimental and control groups. In addition to routine care and counselling, pregnant women in the experimental group will receive support for developing healthy lifestyle behaviours through Instagram, while the control group will receive only standard pregnancy care and counselling services approved by the Ministry of Health.

General Hypothesis of the Study:

H1: The Healthy Lifestyle Behaviours development programme offered through the social media platform Instagram is effective in providing a positive development on healthy lifestyle behaviours in pregnant women.

Detailed Description

Maternal health covers women's health during pregnancy, childbirth and the postnatal period. Despite significant progress over the last two decades, 287,000 women are reported to die during pregnancy, childbirth and the postnatal period in 2020. Adopting healthy lifestyle habits from pre-pregnancy to the postnatal period is crucial for healthy pregnancies and the prevention of diseases that can occur during pregnancy. Pregnant women are advised to adopt healthy eating habits, consume adequate nutrients, balance the body's extra demands and maintain physical activity to maintain good health and prevent excessive weight gain. The World Health Organisation warns pregnant women about nutrition, physical activity, stress management and avoiding toxic substances. High-quality evidence shows that diet, exercise or both interventions can significantly reduce the risk of excessive pregnancy weight gain compared with routine care. These interventions may reduce maternal hypertension, neonatal respiratory distress syndrome, caesarean section, macrosomia. Today, a large part of our lives is dominated by mobile phones, computers and household appliances that operate over the Internet. In this way, people can communicate with each other and transfer information to each other without time and space barriers. Social media, defined as online networking sites that enable Internet users to communicate through activities such as content sharing and personal comments, has become a widely used term for sharing information and ideas on the Internet or mobile platforms. The literature shows that the use of social media has become widespread in pregnancy care. In a meta-analysis of fifteen randomised controlled trials, social media and mobile health applications were found to be effective in supporting maternal physical health in pregnant women in conditions such as weight management, gestational diabetes control, asthma control. At the same time, it has been observed that it improves maternal mental health and increases women's level of knowledge about the pregnancy process.

With the current study, it is aimed to implement the Healthy Lifestyle Behaviour Development Programme to be created based on the Health Belief Model in pregnant women through the social media platform, which is frequently used today, and to contribute to the development of mother-baby health by providing pregnant women with instant and easy access to the right information.

Study Timeline

• Status Verified: 2025-05
• Study First Submitted: 2025-05-03
• Study First Submitted QC: 2025-05-26
• Last Update Submitted: 2025-05-26
• Study First Posted: 2025-06-04
• Last Update Posted: 2025-06-04
• Study Start: 2025-09-02
• Primary Completion: 2026-04-01
• Study Completion: 2026-05-30

Recruitment & Eligibility

• Status: NOT_YET_RECRUITING
• Sex: Female
• Target Recruitment: 96

Inclusion Criteria

• First and second trimester pregnancy
• 18-49 years old
• With a singleton pregnancy
• Able to use web and mobile devices
• Has an account of the determined social media platform and actively uses it
• Can read and write Turkish
• Pregnant women with regular internet access were included in the inclusion criteria of this study.

Exclusion Criteria

• Has a psychiatric problem that prevents communication
• Have a serious pre-pregnancy condition (heart disease, kidney disease or other chronic disease)
• Previously used a similar programme or app to change healthy lifestyle habits
• Risky pregnancies (heart disease, kidney disease or other chronic diseases)

Study & Design

• Study Type: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Design: PARALLEL

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Developing healthy lifestyle behaviours in pregnant women	8 weeks	To ensure the formation of healthy lifestyle behaviours in pregnant women It was developed by Walker et al. (1996) and adapted into Turkish by Bahar et al. (2008). Scale; Health Responsibility (3,9,15,21,27,33,39,45,51), Physical Activity (4,10,16,22,28,34,40,46), Nutrition (2,8,14,20,26,32,38,44,50), Spiritual Development (6,12,18,24,30,36,42,48, 52), Interpersonal Relationships (1,7,13,19,25,25,31,37,43,49), Stress Management (5,11,17,23,29,35,41,47). The scale was used to measure healthy lifestyle behaviors and validity and reliability studies were conducted. The Cronbach Alpha coefficient of the scale is .92 and has a high degree of reliability. The reliability coefficients of the sub-dimensions of the scale were found to be; Health responsibility .77, Physical Activity .79, Nutrition .68, Spiritual Development .79, Interpersonal Relations .80, Stress Management .64. Increasing scores in the total scale and sub-dimensions indicate a positive attitude towards healthy lifestyle beh
Pregnant women who participate in a program to improve healthy lifestyle behaviors offered through Instagram will have better sleep quality.	8 weeks	Since there is no section evaluating sleep in the Healthy Lifestyle Behaviors Scale, it was found appropriate to use a separate scale. The DSM-5 Sleep Disorder Scale was developed to measure the severity of sleep problems according to DSM-5 criteria (Yu et al. 2012; Yüzeren et al. 2017; https://www.psychiatry.org). The scale, also known as PROMIS (Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System) Sleep Disorder Scale Short Form, is a well-structured measurement tool (Yüzeren et al. 2017; Ravyts et al. 2021) and has been used in pregnant women (Haas et al. 2016; Bei et al. 2019). The validity and reliability study of the DSM-5 Sleep Disorder Scale Turkish Form (PROMIS-Sleep Disorder Scale-Short Form) (ANNEX-6), which is planned to be used in this study, was conducted by Yüzeren et al. in 2017. The scale, which is suitable for adults, is filled out by taking into account the sleep patterns and quality of people between the ages of 18-75 in the last seven days.
Pregnant women who participate in a program to improve healthy lifestyle behaviors offered through the Instagram platform may have a more positive attitude towards endocrine disruptors.	8 weeks	Endocrine Disruptors Attitude Scale (EDAS): Since the Healthy Lifestyle Behaviors Scale does not have a section evaluating the attitude towards endocrine disruptors, it was found appropriate to use a separate scale. The scale was developed by Miral et al (2022) to determine adults' attitudes towards endocrine disruptors and consists of 21 items. The endocrine disruptors attitude scale has two sub-dimensions: consumer behavior and nutrition and hygiene. The consumer behavior sub-dimension consists of 11 items in total, including items numbered 1,2,7,8,9,9,10,10,11,12,12,13,18,21. The nutrition and hygiene sub-dimension consists of 10 items in total, including items numbered 3,4,5,6,14,15,16,17,19,20. The scale was prepared as a five-point Likert-type scale as "Strongly agree", "Agree", "Neutral", "Disagree", "Strongly disagree". There are no reverse items in the scale. The highest score to be obtained from the scale, which has no cut-off value, is 105 and the lowest score is 21.

Trial Locations

Locations (1)

Istanbul University-Cerrahpaşa; 🇹🇷 Istanbul, Turkey