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Repercussions of the COVID-19 Response in Pregnant Women in Western Uganda: Knowledge, Behavior, and Emotional State after the First Lockdown in 2020

Limited research exists on pregnant women’s knowledge, attitudes, and behavior concerning COVID-19 in sub-Saharan Africa. We performed a cross-sectional study among 648 pregnant women in Fort Portal, Uganda, after the first lockdown starting in June 2020. Structured interviews were conducted at thre...

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Autores principales: Theuring, Stefanie, Kengonzi, Agnes, Hafermann, Lorena, Herrmann, Carolin, Kabwama, Steven Ndugwa, Rubaihayo, John
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8345751/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34360111
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18157817
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author Theuring, Stefanie
Kengonzi, Agnes
Hafermann, Lorena
Herrmann, Carolin
Kabwama, Steven Ndugwa
Rubaihayo, John
author_facet Theuring, Stefanie
Kengonzi, Agnes
Hafermann, Lorena
Herrmann, Carolin
Kabwama, Steven Ndugwa
Rubaihayo, John
author_sort Theuring, Stefanie
collection PubMed
description Limited research exists on pregnant women’s knowledge, attitudes, and behavior concerning COVID-19 in sub-Saharan Africa. We performed a cross-sectional study among 648 pregnant women in Fort Portal, Uganda, after the first lockdown starting in June 2020. Structured interviews were conducted at three different facilities during routine antenatal care, assessing sociodemographic background, knowledge of COVID-19, prevention behavior adherence, and psycho-emotional stress levels. We performed descriptive analyses and examined associated factors using multivariable logistic regression. In Fort Portal Region, 32.8% of pregnant women had a higher knowledge regarding the COVID-19 pandemic, while all women at least heard of COVID-19. 88.6% of the women showed low self-reported prevention behavior adherence. More than one third of the pregnant women experienced high psycho-emotional stress related to the pandemic (39.8%). The odds for psycho-emotional stress were increased among the age group 21–30 years (AOR 1.97; 95% CI 1.18–3.35) compared to women under the age of 21, and decreased in single or divorced women compared to women in partnerships (AOR 0.42; 0.22–0.77) and in women having less COVID-19-related knowledge (AOR 0.40; 0.27–0.58). In conclusion, prevention behavior adherence seemed challenging, and psycho-emotional stress was ubiquitous among our cohort. To avoid adverse consequences in maternal and neonatal health, campaigns for hygiene but also women’s emotional state should be a major focus of community healthcare in exceptional times such as the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic.
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spelling pubmed-83457512021-08-07 Repercussions of the COVID-19 Response in Pregnant Women in Western Uganda: Knowledge, Behavior, and Emotional State after the First Lockdown in 2020 Theuring, Stefanie Kengonzi, Agnes Hafermann, Lorena Herrmann, Carolin Kabwama, Steven Ndugwa Rubaihayo, John Int J Environ Res Public Health Article Limited research exists on pregnant women’s knowledge, attitudes, and behavior concerning COVID-19 in sub-Saharan Africa. We performed a cross-sectional study among 648 pregnant women in Fort Portal, Uganda, after the first lockdown starting in June 2020. Structured interviews were conducted at three different facilities during routine antenatal care, assessing sociodemographic background, knowledge of COVID-19, prevention behavior adherence, and psycho-emotional stress levels. We performed descriptive analyses and examined associated factors using multivariable logistic regression. In Fort Portal Region, 32.8% of pregnant women had a higher knowledge regarding the COVID-19 pandemic, while all women at least heard of COVID-19. 88.6% of the women showed low self-reported prevention behavior adherence. More than one third of the pregnant women experienced high psycho-emotional stress related to the pandemic (39.8%). The odds for psycho-emotional stress were increased among the age group 21–30 years (AOR 1.97; 95% CI 1.18–3.35) compared to women under the age of 21, and decreased in single or divorced women compared to women in partnerships (AOR 0.42; 0.22–0.77) and in women having less COVID-19-related knowledge (AOR 0.40; 0.27–0.58). In conclusion, prevention behavior adherence seemed challenging, and psycho-emotional stress was ubiquitous among our cohort. To avoid adverse consequences in maternal and neonatal health, campaigns for hygiene but also women’s emotional state should be a major focus of community healthcare in exceptional times such as the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. MDPI 2021-07-23 /pmc/articles/PMC8345751/ /pubmed/34360111 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18157817 Text en © 2021 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Theuring, Stefanie
Kengonzi, Agnes
Hafermann, Lorena
Herrmann, Carolin
Kabwama, Steven Ndugwa
Rubaihayo, John
Repercussions of the COVID-19 Response in Pregnant Women in Western Uganda: Knowledge, Behavior, and Emotional State after the First Lockdown in 2020
title Repercussions of the COVID-19 Response in Pregnant Women in Western Uganda: Knowledge, Behavior, and Emotional State after the First Lockdown in 2020
title_full Repercussions of the COVID-19 Response in Pregnant Women in Western Uganda: Knowledge, Behavior, and Emotional State after the First Lockdown in 2020
title_fullStr Repercussions of the COVID-19 Response in Pregnant Women in Western Uganda: Knowledge, Behavior, and Emotional State after the First Lockdown in 2020
title_full_unstemmed Repercussions of the COVID-19 Response in Pregnant Women in Western Uganda: Knowledge, Behavior, and Emotional State after the First Lockdown in 2020
title_short Repercussions of the COVID-19 Response in Pregnant Women in Western Uganda: Knowledge, Behavior, and Emotional State after the First Lockdown in 2020
title_sort repercussions of the covid-19 response in pregnant women in western uganda: knowledge, behavior, and emotional state after the first lockdown in 2020
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8345751/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34360111
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18157817
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