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Background The COVID-19 has caused significant toll over the globe. Pregnant women are at risk of infection. The present study examined the frequency of washing hands with soap and wearing face mask when going out, prevalence of depression and anxiety, and identified their associated factors among pregnant women during the early phase of COVID-19 outbreak in China. Methods A cross-sectional online survey was conducted between 24 February and 3 March 2020. A total of 15 428 pregnant women who were using maternal health care services in China completed a questionnaire which assessed their socio-demographic and pregnancy-related characteristics, contextual, cognitive and social factors related to COVID-19, frequency of washing hands and wearing face masks, and depression and anxiety. Logistics regression analyses were performed to identify the associated factors of preventive behaviours and mental health. Results The prevalence of probable anxiety and depression was 28.2% and 43.6% respectively. 19.8% reported always wearing face mask when going out, and 19.1% reported washing hands with soap for more than 10 times per day. Results from logistic regression analyses showed that older age was associated with lower levels of depression and anxiety (OR = 0.42–0.67) and higher frequency of washing hands (OR = 1.57–3.40). Higher level of education level was associated with probable depression (OR = 1.31–1.45) and higher frequency of wearing face mask (OR = 1.50–1.57). After adjusting for significant socio-demographic and pregnancy-related factors, place of residence being locked down (aOR = 1.10–1.11), being quarantined (aOR = 1.42–1.57), personally knowing someone being infected with COVID-19 (aOR = 1.80–1.92), perception that COVID-19 would pose long term physical harm to human (aOR = 1.25–1.28) were associated with higher levels of depression and anxiety, while the perception that the disease will be under control in the coming month was associated with lower levels of depression and anxiety (aOR = 0.59–0.63) and lower tendency of always wearing face mask (aOR = 0.85). Social support was associated with lower levels of depression and anxiety (aOR = 0.86–0,87) and higher frequency of washing hands (aOR = 1.06). Conclusions The mental health and preventive behaviours of pregnant women during COVID-19 outbreak was associated with a range of socio-demographic, pregnancy-related, contextual, cognitive and social factors. Interventions to mitigate their mental health problems and to promote preventive behaviours are highly warranted.

BackgroundCongenital heart defect (CHD) is the most common major malformations in infants. Little is known about the main epidemiologic characteristics of CHD prevalence in Guangdong province, China. Our study was undertaken to investigate the time trends in the prevalence of CHD in Guangdong province from 2008 to 2012.MethodsData were retrieved from the Guangdong Hospital-Based Birth Defects Monitoring System during 2008–2012. All infants more than 28 weeks of gestation and infants up to 7 days of age in monitoring hospitals were monitored. We used prevalence rate to describe the difference in prevalence of CHD between rural and urban areas. Odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) for CHD were calculated for the rural and urban areas. The CHD rate was calculated on the basis of birth defects per 10,000 births.ResultsA total of 1005052 births were reported to the Birth Defects Monitoring Network of Guangdong Province, of which 5268 cases were diagnosed as CHD. The overall prevalence of CHD was 52.41 per 10 000 births (95% CI: 51.00 ~ 53.83) in provincial-wide, 66.08 per 10 000 births (95% CI: 63.77 ~ 68.39) in urban areas, and 40.23 per 10 000 births (95% CI: 38.52 ~ 41.93) in rural areas. The prevalence of CHD increased with maternal age both in urban areas (P < 0.01) and in rural areas (P < 0.01).ConclusionThe increasing trends of CHD prevalence suggest that maternal age and the improvement of diagnosis ability might play a critical role.

After irradiation results in cytotoxic effects by DNA damage, base excision repair (BER) pathway is involved in the repair of single-strand breaks and nonhomologous end joining and homologous repair of double-strand breaks caused by radiotherapy. Alterations in the function of BER DNA repair genes may affect DNA repair proficiency and influence the response of patients with cancer to radiotherapy. The association of single nucleotide polymorphisms of BER DNA repair X-ray repair cross-complementing group 1 protein (XRCC1) and risk of radiotherapy-induced ≥grade 2 acute skin reaction in patients with breast cancer was examined. It was found that the risk of ≥grade 2 acute skin toxicity after radiotherapy could be increased by 2.86-fold in patients carrying the XRCC1 -77TC and CC genotypes (p = 0.016). However, the other three coding XRCC1 variants did not influence the risk of ≥grade 2 acute skin toxicity for patients with breast cancer after radiotherapy. Our results suggested that the XRCC1 polymorphism is associated with increased risk of radiation-induced acute skin reaction in a Chinese population.