Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-v2bm5 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-11T04:43:22.103Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Anxiously expecting during a COVID-19: a cross-sectional descriptive inquiry on the effects of the pandemic on pregnant women

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 July 2023

T. C. Ionescu ,
S. Zaharia ,
M. I. Draganescu  and
C. Tudose
T. C. Ionescu*
Affiliation:
Department of Neuroscience, University of Medicine and Pharmacy “Carol Davila” Bucharest
S. Zaharia
Affiliation:
Department II, Alexandru Obregia Clinical Hospital of Psychiatry, Bucharest, Romania
M. I. Draganescu
Affiliation:
Department of Neuroscience, University of Medicine and Pharmacy “Carol Davila” Bucharest
C. Tudose
Affiliation:
Department of Neuroscience, University of Medicine and Pharmacy “Carol Davila” Bucharest
*
*Corresponding author.

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.
Introduction

While pregnancy itself is a risk factor in the development of anxiety disorders, the COVID-19 pandemic has brought additional pressure on expecting women. Despite these two independent factors, no study regarding their cumulative effect on anxiety in soon-to-be Romanian mothers exists.

Objectives

This study intends to address this deficiency by measuring the level of anxiety in a sample of pregnant women from the public healthcare sector in Romania.

Methods

Sociodemographic data and Zung Self-reported Anxiety Scores (SAS) were used to look at 121 pregnant women to get a fuller picture of anxiety in pregnant women during the pandemic.

Results

Some of the main findings of the study are as follows: anxiety symptoms are more intense during the first trimester of pregnancy, especially in the psychological domain of the scale, as opposed to the third one. High BMI was weakly correlated with lower Zung Scale scores, while marital status and having other children were moderately correlated with less anxiety symptoms. While no association could be found between history of infection, vaccination and anxiety, surprisingly, unvaccinated women showed less psychological distress than vaccinated ones (moderate correlation), suggesting that less anxiety prone women are also less likely to get adequate protection. Getting one’s information from official sources also proved to be weakly correlated with higher Zung Scale scores.

Image:

Image 2:

Conclusions

In conclusions, the findings of this study can serve as a start for further inquiry regarding the impact of the COVID pandemic on the mental health of pregnant women.

Disclosure of Interest

None Declared

Type
Abstract
Information
European Psychiatry , Volume 66 , Special Issue S1: Abstracts of the 31st European Congress of Psychiatry , March 2023 , pp. S455 - S456
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the European Psychiatric Association
Submit a response

Comments

No Comments have been published for this article.