Abstract
INTRODUCTION: The health quotient (HQ) represents health awareness, health knowledge, and health ability. There are few studies on the HQ of women in the puerperium. METHODS: The convenience sampling method was used to select puerperium women. RESULTS: A total of 245 questionnaires were valid. The average scores of health awareness, health knowledge, and health ability of women were 15.0 ± 1.6 (maximum: 18), 26.6 ± 7.9 (maximum: 42), and 25.8 ± 5.3 (maximum: 33) points, respectively. The residence of rural (OR = 3.489, p = 0.018) and whether the perinatal caregiver was a nanny (OR = 2.538, p = 0.019) were independently associated with health awareness. The occupational status of on-the-job (OR = 2.573, p = 0.010) and whether the payment method was medical insurance (OR = 0.233, p = 0.048) were independently associated with health knowledge. The place of residence (OR = 3.090, p = 0.040) and parity ≥ 2 births (OR = 4.324, p = 0.001) were independently associated with health ability. The structural equation model showed that the maternal health knowledge had direct effects on maternal health ability (β = 0.316, p = 0.011) and baby health ability (β = 0.327, p = 0.029), the baby health knowledge directly affected the baby health ability (β = 0.462, p < 0.001), and the health awareness directly affected the maternal health ability (β = 0.569, p = 0.006). CONCLUSION: Puerperium women had sufficient health awareness, suboptimal health knowledge, and suboptimal health ability. The residence, perinatal caregiver, occupational status, payment method, and parity were risk factors of HQ.