Worry, Anxiety and Coping Strategies in Pregnant Women referring to Health Centers in Hamadan 2016

Abstract

Abstract: Introduction: Regarding the importance of the physical and mental health of pregnant women and the negative effects of worry and anxiety on maternal and fetal health, identifying the factors affecting the reduction of worries and anxiety is necessary. So this study aimed to determine worry, anxiety and coping strategies in pregnant women referring to health centers in Hamadan 2017. Method: This analytical cross-sectional study was performed on 465 eligible pregnant women with gestational age of 14- 26 and 27- 40 weeks referred to health centers of Hamadan, 2016. Data were collected using the obstetric and socio-demographic characteristics questionnaires, the Billings and Moos Coping Strategy, Spiel Berger State & Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) and Cambridge Worry Scale (CWS). Descriptive and analytic statistics including Descriptive statistics, independent T test, Spearman correlation, ANCOVA and Kruskal-Wallis were used to analyze data. Then the general linear model was used to control confounder variables. Results: More than half of women (57.5%) used emotion-focused strategies and most of participants had moderate anxiety.The mean (SD) of worry score was 25.8) 15.1), with achievable scores of 0 to 80. The mean (SD) of total coping strategies score was 30.3 (6.4), with achievable scores of 0 to 57. The mean (SD) of the score of Strait and Trait anxiety among pregnant women was respectively 43.7 (10.5) and 43.5 (9.0) of the attainable scores of 20 to 80. There was a significant and direct statistical correlation between emotional-focused strategy with total score of worry (r= 0.12, p= 0.012) All of its dimensions include socio-economic (p= 0.044), socio-medical (p= 0.038) and maternal and neonatal health (p= 0.042), except for relationships with spouse, family and friends. There was a statistically significant and negative correlation between the state anxiety and the total score of the coping strategy (r = -0.17; p<0.001) and the problem-focused coping strategy (r= -0.25, p<0.001), as well as between the trait anxiety with the total score of the coping strategy (r = -0.22, p <0.001) and the problem-focused coping strategy (p<0.001, r= -0.30). There was no statistically significant correlation between emotional-focused coping strategies with state and trait anxiety (p>0.05). There was a statistically significant correlation between intensity of state and trait anxiety and type of coping strategies (p<0.001). Conclusion: The findings of the study indicate that there is a direct correlation between worry of pregnant women and emotional-focused strategies. Therefore, since emotional-focused strategies are poorly adapted, suggested that midwives should help pregnant women to reduce their worry during pregnancy by training coping strategies in order to increase the use of problem- focused strategy