Prenatal anxiety and obstetrical choices among pregnant women in Wuhan
and Chongqing during the COVID-19 outbreak: a cross-sectional study
Abstract
Objectives: To investigate the mental status of pregnant women and to
describe their obstetrical choices during the outbreak of COVID-19.
Design: A cross-sectional study. Setting: Wuhan and Chongqing, two
different epidemic areas. Population: A total of 1947 valid
questionnaires were received. Methods: We collected information on
demographic, pregnancy, and epidemic, along with their attitudes towards
the epidemic, anxiety status and obstetrical choices. We described and
compared the city-based distribution of all above factors, aiming to
explain how anxiety and obstetrical choices existed and differed. Main
Outcome Measures: To explore why differences existed, we estimated the
impact of the epidemic on women’s anxiety by multivariable analysis.
Results: Distribution differences could be seen between cities in
employment status, household income, gestational age, fetal number, and
exposure history. Women’s attitudes towards COVID-19 in Wuhan were more
extreme than that in Chongqing. The anxiety rate was more than double in
Wuhan (24.47%) compared to that in Chongqing (10.44%). Generally
speaking, obstetrical choices were similar among the 1947 participants,
but more obvious in Wuhan. Conclusions: Our study found that the
outbreak aggravated prenatal anxiety, and the influence factors could be
targets of mental care. Synchronously, vital obstetrical choices
changed, followed by pertinent professional advice to prevent
irreversible adverse pregnancy outcomes. Online platforms may play
crucial roles to address patients’ needs in future PHEs. Funding:
National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 81771614 and No.
81771613), and the National Key Research and Development Program of
China (No. 2016YFC1000407). Keywords: COVID-19; Pregnancy; Prenatal
Anxiety; Obstetrical Choices.