Worries of Pregnant Women: Testing the Farsi Cambridge Worry Scale

Abstract

Pregnancy adds many sources of concerns to women's daily life worries. Excessive worry can affect maternal physiological and psychological state that influences the pregnancy outcomes. The aim of this study was to validate the Cambridge Worry Scale (CWS) in a sample of Iranian pregnant women. After translation of the CWS, ten experts evaluated the items and added six items to the 17-item scale. In a descriptive cross-sectional study, 405 of pregnant women booked for prenatal care completed the Farsi CWS. We split the sample randomly. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was conducted on the first half of the sample to disclose the factorial structure of the 23-item scale. The results of the EFA on the Farsi CWS indicated four factors altogether explained 51.5% of variances. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was done on the second half of the sample. The results of the CFA showed that the model fit our data (chi-square/df = 2.02, RMSEA = 0.071, SRMR = 0.071, CFI = 0.95, and NNFI = 0.94). Cronbach's alpha coefficient for the Farsi CWS was 0.883. The Farsi CWS is a reliable and valid instrument for understanding common pregnancy worries in the third trimester of pregnancy in Iranian women.

Pregnant Women’s Well-being and Worry During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Comparative Study

“…c Logistic regression: p = 0.055. We compared pregnant women's worries during the COVID-19 pandemic and their worries according to our study conducted in 2016 [13]. The results indicate that the mean scores for the two factors designated as 'worry about the fetus health' and 'socio-economic' are statistically different between the two studies (p < 0.05).…”

“…Inclusion criteria were being pregnant at the time of the study, having a single healthy fetus, informed consent to participate in the study, and having no signi cant psychological disorder. To determine the sample size, we considered the percentage of women in a previous study whose worry score was less than 38.5 (the mean score of the worry scale) [13] and also the percentage of women in another study whose well-being score was less than 50 [18]. These percentages were 45% and 34.5%, respectively.…”

“…The minimum sample size estimate is 347. We collected the data using the Persian versions of the WHO-5 well-being index [18] and the Cambridge worry scale (CWS) [13]. In addition, we developed a questionnaire to investigate socio-demographic and obstetric information (supplementary le).…”

“…The Persian version consists of 23 items and 4 factors including the socio medical (10 item)( such as "Having nobody in delivery ward", "Giving birth", "Whether midwives provide good care in labor", "Going to hospital", "Crowded delivery ward"), health of mother/other & Relationships (4 items)( i.e., "Your own health", "The health of someone closes to you", "Your relationship with your husband", "Your relationship with your family and friends"), fetus health (3 items)( i.e., "The possibility of miscarriage", "The possibility of fetal death, disease or anomaly", "The probability of going into labor too early") and socio-demographic factor (6 items)(such as "Money problems", "Employment problems"). The Cronbach's alpha value for the 23 items of the Persian CWS was 0.886 [13]. We used the Persian version of the CWS for investigating pregnant women's worries during the COVID-19 pandemic because we believe its items are relevant to the pregnant women's worries during the pandemic.…”

“…Results of these studies indicate that pregnant women's worries originate from different sources. These sources can be classi ed as socio-medical, socio-economic, the health of the fetus, mother's own health and relational issues [12,13].…”