Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on the Psychological Status of Pregnant Women

摘要

Introduction Pregnancy is a beautiful phase in every woman's life in which she undergoes several physical and psychological transformations. The level of stress and anxiety may increase due to a sudden outbreak of contagious diseases. Objective To evaluate the psychological status of pregnant women during the coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) outbreak. Materials and methods A cross-sectional survey was conducted from July 15, 2020, to September 15, 2020, in Dehradun, Haridwar, and Nainital districts of Uttarakhand, India. A total of 333 pregnant women were surveyed through an online platform. The psychological impact of the COVID‐19 pandemic was measured using the Impact of Event-Revised (IES-R) scale, and anxiety levels were measured using the Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7) scale. Data were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Results The survey results revealed that around three-fourths (73.6%) of the pregnant women reported minimal psychological impact, with a mean IES-R score of 16.93±11.23, whereas 69.4% of respondents had a minimal level of anxiety, with a mean GAD-7 score of 3.09±3.73. Multivariate linear regression found a positive association between psychological impact and gestational age, occupation, religion, locality, conception, history of abortion (p0.05). Also, the level of anxiety was significantly associated with education, occupation, monthly income, religion, marital and family support, history of mental illness (p0.01), conception type, and awareness regarding COVID-19 (p0.05). Conclusion Psychological impact and anxiety levels were found to be minimal in pregnant women residing in Uttarakhand. Early identification of high-risk women is important to formulate necessary strategic planning to reduce the complications associated with maternal psychological stress on developing fetus.