Associations Between Fear of COVID-19, Mental Health, and Preventive Behaviours Across Pregnant Women and Husbands: An Actor-Partner Interdependence Modelling

Abstract

The present cross-sectional study examined the actor-partner interdependence effect of fear of COVID-19 among Iranian pregnant women and their husbands and its association with their mental health and preventive behaviours during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. A total of 290 pregnant women and their husbands (N = 580) were randomly selected from a list of pregnant women in the Iranian Integrated Health System and were invited to respond to psychometric scales assessing fear of COVID-19, depression, anxiety, suicidal intention, mental quality of life, and COVID-19 preventive behaviours. The findings demonstrated significant dyadic relationships between husbands and their pregnant wives' fear of COVID-19, mental health, and preventive behaviours. Pregnant wives’ actor effect of fear of COVID-19 was significantly associated with depression, suicidal intention, mental quality of life, and COVID-19 preventive behaviours but not anxiety. Moreover, a husband actor effect of fear of COVID-19 was significantly associated with depression, anxiety, suicidal intention, mental quality of life, and COVID-19 preventive behaviours. Additionally, there were significant partner effects observed for both the pregnant wives and their husbands concerning all outcomes. The present study used a cross-sectional design and so is unable to determine the mechanism or causal ordering of the effects. Also, the data are mainly based on self-reported measures which have some limitations due to its potential for social desirability and recall biases. Based on the findings, couples may benefit from psychoeducation that focuses on the effect of mental health problems on pregnant women and the foetus.

Adolescents’ health literacy, health protective measures, and health-related quality of life during the Covid-19 pandemic

“…Furthermore, at the time of data collection there was a lack of validated instruments on specific protective health measures (hand hygiene) which forced us to rapidly design an instrument that has not yet been validated. After the data collection of the current study, important work has been done to develop and validate preventive behavior questionnaires [33,34]. Another limitation is that we did not control for the increase in familywise error rate across multiple statistical tests.…”

What is the Role of OBGYN Residents during COVID-19 Pandemics?

“…To cite just a few, domestic violence, anxiety, and perinatal depression are rising in times of social isolation and emotional constraints. 5,6 We understand that OBGYN are the leading professionals in women's integral health care, and residents must take part on it. Finally, and of the uttermost importance, we still do not know how SARS-CoV-2 behaves in specific conditions of our field, such as in pregnancy 7 or oncology.…”

Mental Health Outcomes in Perinatal Women During the Remission Phase of COVID-19 in China

“…As a significant life-threatening public health event, the COVID-19 pandemic deteriorates the mental health status of perinatal women, especially those with deficient support systems (e.g., limited contact with family and friends) ( 12 ). A recent study found that more than 1/3 of the perinatal women experienced depression during the outbreak ( 13 ), and pregnant women reported a higher rate of depression after the declaration of the COVID-19 pandemic (29.6% vs. 26.0%) ( 14 ).…”

“…A number of the pregnant and postpartum women also expressed fear of being infected with COVID-19, and it has been shown that the fear of COVID-19 was significantly related to depression, anxiety, suicidal ideation, and poor psychological quality of life (QOL) ( 12 ). Luckily, current studies suggest that there is no direct evidence for intrauterine infection caused by vertical transmission in women who develop COVID-19 pneumonia in their third trimester ( 16 ).…”