Anxiety and depression symptoms in the same pregnant women before and during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

ObjectivesWith clinical experience from previous coronavirus infections, public health measures and fear of infection may have negative psychological effects on pregnant women. This study aimed to compare the level of anxiety and depression in the same pregnant women before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.MethodsThe pregnant women continuing pregnancy who participated in the first study which was undertaken to clarify the factors associated with mental health of pregnant women before the COVID-19 pandemic, were included for the current study during the outbreak. Anxiety and depression symptoms of the same pregnant women were evaluated by using the Inventory of Depression and Anxiety Symptoms II and Beck Anxiety Inventory twice before and during the pandemic.ResultsA total of 63 pregnant women completed questionnaires. The mean age of the women and the mean gestational age was 30.35±5.27 years and 32.5±7 weeks, respectively. The mean total IDAS II score was found to increase from 184.78±49.67 (min: 109, max: 308) to 202.57±52.90 (min: 104, max: 329) before and during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. According to the BAI scores the number of patients without anxiety (from 10 to 6) and with mild anxiety (from 31 to 24) decreased and patients with moderate (from 20 to 25) and severe anxiety (from 2 to 8) increased after SARS-CoV-2 infection. Multivariate linear regression analysis revealed that obesity and relationship with her husband are the best predictors of IDAS II scores.ConclusionsThis study indicated that COVID-19 outbreak affects the mental health of pregnant women negatively which leads to adverse birth outcomes. The level of anxiety and depression symptoms of pregnant women during the COVID-19 infection significantly increased. Healthcare professionals should establish comprehensive treatment plans for pregnant women who are highly vulnerable population to prevent mental trauma during the infectious disease outbreaks.

Mental Health of Pregnant and Postpartum Women During the Coronavirus Disease 2019 Pandemic: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

“…A total of 23 studies (Ayaz et al, 2020;Berthelot et al, 2020;Ceulemans et al, 2020;Durankuş and Aksu, 2020;Farewell et al, 2020;Gu et al, 2020;He et al, 2020;Lebel et al, 2020;Li et al, 2020;Liu et al, 2020;Mappa et al, 2020;Matsushima and Horiguchi, 2020;Oskovi-Kaplan et al, 2020;Parra-Saavedra et al, 2020;Patabendige et al, 2020;Preis et al, 2020;Saccone et al, 2020;Sade et al, 2020;Silverman et al, 2020;Wu et al, 2020b;Yue et al, 2020;Zanardo et al, 2020;Zhang and Ma, 2020) performed with 20 569 participants (16,797 pregnant women and 3,772 postpartum women) during the COVID-19 pandemic and with 3,677 pregnant women before the COVID-19 pandemic were included in this systematic review and metaanalysis. A total of 19 studies (Ceulemans et al, 2020;Durankuş and Aksu, 2020;Farewell et al, 2020;He et al, 2020;Lebel et al, 2020;Li et al, 2020;Liu et al, 2020;Mappa et al, 2020;Matsushima and Horiguchi, 2020;Oskovi-Kaplan et al, 2020;Parra-Saavedra et al, 2020;Patabendige et al, 2020;Preis et al, 2020;Saccone et al, 2020;…”

“…A total of 19 studies (Ceulemans et al, 2020;Durankuş and Aksu, 2020;Farewell et al, 2020;He et al, 2020;Lebel et al, 2020;Li et al, 2020;Liu et al, 2020;Mappa et al, 2020;Matsushima and Horiguchi, 2020;Oskovi-Kaplan et al, 2020;Parra-Saavedra et al, 2020;Patabendige et al, 2020;Preis et al, 2020;Saccone et al, 2020;Sade et al, 2020;Silverman et al, 2020;Wu et al, 2020b;Yue et al, 2020;Zhang and Ma, 2020) were cross-sectional, and 4 (Ayaz et al, 2020;Berthelot et al, 2020;Gu et al, 2020;Zanardo et al, 2020) were case-control studies. Among the 23 studies, 7 were located in China (Gu et al, 2020;He et al, 2020;Li et al, 2020;Liu et al, 2020;Wu et al, 2020b;Yue et al, 2020;Zhang and Ma, 2020), 3 were implemented in America (Farewell et al, 2020;Preis et al, 2020;Silverman et al, 2020), 3 were performed in Turkey (Ayaz et al, 2020;Durankuş and Aksu, 2020;Oskovi-Kaplan et al, 2020), 3 were undertaken in Italy (Mappa et al, 2020;Saccone et al, 2020;…”

“…Anxiety was evaluated in 13 studies (Ayaz et al, 2020;Berthelot et al, 2020;Ceulemans et al, 2020;Gu et al, 2020;Lebel et al, 2020;Li et al, 2020;Liu et al, 2020;Mappa et al, 2020;Parra-Saavedra et al, 2020;Patabendige et al, 2020;Preis et al, 2020;Saccone et al, 2020;Yue et al, 2020) with 10,424 pregnant women. The pooled prevalence of anxiety among pregnant women was 37% (95% CI 25-49%, I 2 = 99.4%) as shown in Figure 2.…”

“…The pooled prevalence of anxiety among pregnant women was 37% (95% CI 25-49%, I 2 = 99.4%) as shown in Figure 2. After excluding studies with a high risk of bias, 11 studies with a low risk of bias (Ayaz et al, 2020;Berthelot et al, 2020;Ceulemans et al, 2020;Lebel et al, 2020;Liu et al, 2020;Mappa et al, 2020;Parra-Saavedra et al, 2020;Patabendige et al, 2020;Preis et al, 2020;Saccone et al, 2020;Yue et al, 2020) showed a pooled prevalence of anxiety among pregnant women of 34% (95% CI 22-47%, I 2 = 99.4%). In sensitivity analysis, 5 studies (Berthelot et al, 2020;Ceulemans et al, 2020;Li et al, 2020;Saccone et al, 2020; Yue et al, 2020) affected the pooled prevalence of anxiety among pregnant women by over 2%.…”

“…Each of the 7 remaining studies utilized a different scale. Two studies (Ayaz et al, 2020;Berthelot et al, 2020) reported the percentages of positive anxiety among pregnant women in the same location during and before the COVID-19 pandemic (Supplementary Figure 3). The pooled RR was 1.65 (95% CI: 1.25-2.19, I 2 = 0.0%).…”