Becoming a mom can change a woman’s life permanently.
Younger moms are more likely to have more challenges. They may struggle with finance, live in poorer housing, and have lower education compared with older moms.
In addition, younger moms may move away from their parents’ home early and have a risk of social isolation and less social support.
Because they may face more challenges, younger moms may have more behaviors that can harm their health, such as smoking, drinking alcohol and not taking enough exercise.
It is known that lifestyle can affect the risk of developing cancer. For example, one recent study from the UK suggest that 42% of cancer risk is related to 14 major lifestyle behaviors.
Lower socioeconomic status is linked to unhealthy diet, the lack of exercise, and lower awareness of cancer.
A new study published in Health Education Journal tried to understand what health behaviors in young moms can improve their lifestyle choices and help prevent cancer.
They tested women who became mom at the age of 21 from local children’s centers and other organizations.
All new moms were given a disposable camera and asked to take photos during the following week which they felt demonstrated their everyday life as a young mother.
After that, the new moms were invited to participate in Focus Group. In the group meetings, the photos were displayed to the group (with the agreement of the photographer).
Group members talked about the photo contents and how the contents were related to their motherhood.
The study lasted 27 months, and 27 young moms participate in the research. Most of them had experienced hard challenges, such as single parenthood, no job, debt, domestic violence and poor house living.
Most of the young moms believed themselves were not healthy and laughed at the concept of seeing themselves as healthy.
In addition, many of them did not have a healthy diet, because they could not have time to cook, could not afford healthy foods, and ate too much cheap convenience foods.
The young moms really care about their body weight, because this could change their body image. They also drank less alcohol due to more responsibilities and a lack of childcare and money.
One good thing was that the young moms use social media to communicate with their friends, check health information and support their own and their children’s health.
Many young moms believed that cancer is beyond their control and a bad luck.
They knew little what can be done to prevent cancer, but they did realize some unhealthy behaviors, such as smoking, sitting all day, and drinking too much alcohol could increase cancer risk.
The researchers said “Study findings provide insight into the health behaviors and life choices of young mothers.
They help illustrate health perceptions in relation to cancer risk, providing an understanding of how their daily routine and circumstance influence young women’s decisions and lifestyle behavior choices and highlighting barriers to, and facilitators of, positive health behaviors.”
This type of study is valuable because younger moms are hard to reach in research and often overlooked. It helps us understand younger moms’ thoughts and behaviors about health and cancer.
But the information is only from 27 participants and based on static pictures and self-report. In the future, on-time videos and larger groups can be more informative.
Copyright © 2018 Knowridge Science Report. All rights reserved.
