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Pregnancy Complications in Pandemics: Is Pregnancy-Related Anxiety a Possible Physiological Risk Factor?
Background: Birth and pregnancy complications increased by 10.2% during the 2019 coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Pregnant women are at high risk for anxiety, which might trigger physio-logical stress, leading to pregnancy complications. Aim: This study aimed to investigate factors leading to antena...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
MDPI
2022
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9566655/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36231419 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph191912119 |
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author | Abahussain, Eman Al-Otaibi, Manal Al-Humaidi, Khulud Al-Mutairi, Sultanah Al-Khatir, Alexandra Abualnaja, Amani Al-Mazidi, Sarah |
author_facet | Abahussain, Eman Al-Otaibi, Manal Al-Humaidi, Khulud Al-Mutairi, Sultanah Al-Khatir, Alexandra Abualnaja, Amani Al-Mazidi, Sarah |
author_sort | Abahussain, Eman |
collection | PubMed |
description | Background: Birth and pregnancy complications increased by 10.2% during the 2019 coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Pregnant women are at high risk for anxiety, which might trigger physio-logical stress, leading to pregnancy complications. Aim: This study aimed to investigate factors leading to antenatal anxiety during the COVID-19 pandemic. We also aimed to discuss our find-ings with regard to the current literature about pregnancy complications. Methods: This cross-sectional study interviewed 377 pregnant women and assessed anxiety using a validated 7-item general anxiety disorder (GAD-7) scale. Anxiety was related to physiological and demo-graphic parameters. Anxiety was subdivided into pandemic- and pregnancy-related anxiety to minimize results bias. Results: Our results showed that 75.3% of pregnant women were anxious. The mean GAD-7 score was 8.28 ± 5. Linear regression analysis showed that for every increase in the number of previous pregnancies, there was a 1.3 increase in anxiety level (p < 0.001). Women with no previous miscarriages were more anxious (p < 0.001). Surprisingly, pregnant women who were previously infected with COVID-19 were 6% less stressed. Pregnant women with comorbid-ities were more stressed (p < 0.001). Low income (p < 0.001) and age (p < 0.05) were the demo-graphic factors most significantly related to increased anxiety. Conclusions: The prevalence of pregnancy-related anxiety increased threefold in Saudi Arabia due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Healthcare support should be available remotely during pandemics; pregnant women (especially those with comorbidities) should be educated about the risks of infection and complications to prevent anxiety-related complications during pregnancy. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-9566655 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2022 |
publisher | MDPI |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-95666552022-10-15 Pregnancy Complications in Pandemics: Is Pregnancy-Related Anxiety a Possible Physiological Risk Factor? Abahussain, Eman Al-Otaibi, Manal Al-Humaidi, Khulud Al-Mutairi, Sultanah Al-Khatir, Alexandra Abualnaja, Amani Al-Mazidi, Sarah Int J Environ Res Public Health Article Background: Birth and pregnancy complications increased by 10.2% during the 2019 coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Pregnant women are at high risk for anxiety, which might trigger physio-logical stress, leading to pregnancy complications. Aim: This study aimed to investigate factors leading to antenatal anxiety during the COVID-19 pandemic. We also aimed to discuss our find-ings with regard to the current literature about pregnancy complications. Methods: This cross-sectional study interviewed 377 pregnant women and assessed anxiety using a validated 7-item general anxiety disorder (GAD-7) scale. Anxiety was related to physiological and demo-graphic parameters. Anxiety was subdivided into pandemic- and pregnancy-related anxiety to minimize results bias. Results: Our results showed that 75.3% of pregnant women were anxious. The mean GAD-7 score was 8.28 ± 5. Linear regression analysis showed that for every increase in the number of previous pregnancies, there was a 1.3 increase in anxiety level (p < 0.001). Women with no previous miscarriages were more anxious (p < 0.001). Surprisingly, pregnant women who were previously infected with COVID-19 were 6% less stressed. Pregnant women with comorbid-ities were more stressed (p < 0.001). Low income (p < 0.001) and age (p < 0.05) were the demo-graphic factors most significantly related to increased anxiety. Conclusions: The prevalence of pregnancy-related anxiety increased threefold in Saudi Arabia due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Healthcare support should be available remotely during pandemics; pregnant women (especially those with comorbidities) should be educated about the risks of infection and complications to prevent anxiety-related complications during pregnancy. MDPI 2022-09-25 /pmc/articles/PMC9566655/ /pubmed/36231419 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph191912119 Text en © 2022 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 Abahussain, Eman Al-Otaibi, Manal Al-Humaidi, Khulud Al-Mutairi, Sultanah Al-Khatir, Alexandra Abualnaja, Amani Al-Mazidi, Sarah Pregnancy Complications in Pandemics: Is Pregnancy-Related Anxiety a Possible Physiological Risk Factor? |
title | Pregnancy Complications in Pandemics: Is Pregnancy-Related Anxiety a Possible Physiological Risk Factor? |
title_full | Pregnancy Complications in Pandemics: Is Pregnancy-Related Anxiety a Possible Physiological Risk Factor? |
title_fullStr | Pregnancy Complications in Pandemics: Is Pregnancy-Related Anxiety a Possible Physiological Risk Factor? |
title_full_unstemmed | Pregnancy Complications in Pandemics: Is Pregnancy-Related Anxiety a Possible Physiological Risk Factor? |
title_short | Pregnancy Complications in Pandemics: Is Pregnancy-Related Anxiety a Possible Physiological Risk Factor? |
title_sort | pregnancy complications in pandemics: is pregnancy-related anxiety a possible physiological risk factor? |
topic | Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9566655/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36231419 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph191912119 |
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