The effect of mobile learning on nutrition knowledge and behavior of pregnant women. Download PDF

Background With the advent of new methods and modern technologies, the traditional methods of teaching and learning are gradually losing their effectiveness This study aimed to investigate the effects of mobile based learning on the knowledge and behavior of pregnant women compared with lectures based learning . Methods: This quasi-experimental study was conducted on pregnant women referring to health centers in Neyriz. The sample was consisted of 180 pregnant women referring to urban health care centers of Neyriz, who were experiencing their first pregnancy and were at their first or second trimester. They were divided into the intervention ( mobile based ) and control ( the lecture) groups, randomly. Two groups justified by age, gestational age, economic status and education level. pre-test- post test in both groups was done by using awareness and feeding behavior questionnaire , the intervention group was trained and followed through mobile learning and short message service for 3 consecutive months. The educational materials for the control group were taught in 4 lecturing sessions of 60-90 minutes as well. Four weeks after the 3-month intervention period, a post-test was conducted for both groups. Results :The results show an increase in awareness and behavior of the pregnant women in the intervention group after undertaking training and following up through mobile based learning ; whereas there was no significant difference between the pre-test and post-test scores of awareness and feeding behavior of individuals in the control group (p>0.05). Conclusion: Training and following up nutritional issues remotely via cell phone and SMS has a greater impact on awareness and behavior of pregnant women. Given the availability of this device, it is recommended to use it in order to help different groups of people and patients to be trained more effectively.