Depression, anxiety and stress in the various trimesters of pregnancy in women referring to Tabriz health centres, 2016

Abstract

This study was conducted to investigate the depression, anxiety and stress status in the various trimesters of pregnancy. This cross-sectional study was conducted on 605 pregnant women referring to Tabriz health centres and health bases by using a two-stage cluster sampling method. Data were collected using the socio-demographic characteristics questionnaire and the Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS-21). The Kruskal Wallis statistical test was used to analyze the data. Some 22.8% of the women were depressed in the first trimester, 30.3% in the second trimester and 36.6% in the third trimester. The corresponding percentages were 17.3%, 12.2% and 27.3% for the anxiety variable and 19.8%, 24.7% and 31.7% for the stress variable. According to the results of this study, in addition to the routine care provided during pregnancy, programmes must be developed to evaluate, diagnose and treat possible mental disorders during this period so that the health of pregnant women and their newborns can be guaranteed. é 2018 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group