The effects of coping mechanisms on health outcomes of women at risk for low-weight and premature babies
Abstract
The study focuses on analyzing the effects of Harris Health's Women With Impact (WWI) Program, a program designed to reduce the risk of pre-term and low birth weight in designated Harris County zip codes, on participants' health outcomes of Body Mass Index (BMI) and Waist Measurement. Specifically, the study focused on the role that Coping Mechanisms had on these health outcomes. Participants were given Coping Mechanism scores according to the number of coping mechanisms they used; one-way ANOVA analyses were conducted to assess the association between independent variable Coping Mechanism Scores and dependent variables BMI and Waist Change; the same procedure was done for independent variable Change in Coping Mechanism Scores and dependent variables BMI and Waist Change. Results indicated that there was no statistically significant difference among score groups in their BMI and Waist changes. There was a difference among Change in Coping Mechanism Score groups for dependent variable Waist Change (p= 0.0129). We conclude that the program did have a positive impact on participant's health outcomes that perhaps could not be shown through ANOVA results, as is indicated in graphs describing participants and their health outcomes. Recommendations for future research include careful planning of sample size, and intervention design focused more strongly on Coping Mechanisms.
Subject Area
Medicine|Public health
Recommended Citation
Zingg, Alexandra, "The effects of coping mechanisms on health outcomes of women at risk for low-weight and premature babies" (2014). Texas Medical Center Dissertations (via ProQuest). AAI1568982.
https://digitalcommons.library.tmc.edu/dissertations/AAI1568982