Pregnancy Complications in Pandemics: Is Pregnancy-Related Anxiety a Possible Physiological Risk Factor?

Eman Abahussain, Manal Al-Otaibi, Khulud Al-Humaidi, Sultanah Al-Mutairi, Alexandra Al-Khatir, Amani Abualnaja and Sarah Al-Mazidi ()
Additional contact information
Eman Abahussain: Department of Neuroscience, Faculty of Medicine, Imam Mohammad Ibn Saud Islamic University, P.O. Box 5701, Riyadh 11432, Saudi Arabia
Manal Al-Otaibi: Faculty of Medicine, Imam Mohammad Ibn Saud Islamic University, P.O. Box 5701, Riyadh 11432, Saudi Arabia
Khulud Al-Humaidi: Faculty of Medicine, Imam Mohammad Ibn Saud Islamic University, P.O. Box 5701, Riyadh 11432, Saudi Arabia
Sultanah Al-Mutairi: Faculty of Medicine, Imam Mohammad Ibn Saud Islamic University, P.O. Box 5701, Riyadh 11432, Saudi Arabia
Alexandra Al-Khatir: Department of Obstetric and Gynecology, Faculty of Medicine, Imam Mohammad Ibn Saud Islamic University, P.O. Box 5701, Riyadh 11432, Saudi Arabia
Amani Abualnaja: Faculty of Medicine, Imam Mohammad Ibn Saud Islamic University, P.O. Box 5701, Riyadh 11432, Saudi Arabia
Sarah Al-Mazidi: Department of Physiology, Faculty of Medicine, Imam Mohammad Ibn Saud Islamic University, P.O. Box 5701, Riyadh 11432, Saudi Arabia

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 19, 1-9

Abstract: 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.

Keywords: mental health; pregnancy; anxiety; COVID-19; women’s health (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/19/12119/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/19/12119/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:19:p:12119-:d:924526

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().