Anxiety among Pregnant Women about Corona Virus Infections during COVID-19 Pandemic at a Tertiary Care Center in Nepal: A Descriptive Cross-sectional Study

Abstract

Introduction: COVID-19 is a beta coronavirus that is transmitted by physical interaction or close contact. This Coronavirus Pandemic has also created stress and anxiety among pregnant women all over the world. The disease was first identified in Wuhan city, China, in late December 2019 and was declared pandemic by the World Health Organization on 11th March 2020. Concern and stress in pregnancy are associated with pre-eclampsia, intrauterine growth restriction, preterm labour, depression etc. Pregnancy is an immune-compromised state and poses a high risk to this risk. This study aims to identify anxiety about the coronavirus infection among pregnant women visiting a tertiary care centre in Kathmandu, Nepal, during this COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods: This is a descriptive cross-sectional study conducted at Kathmandu Medical College and Teaching Hospital from 15th July 2020 to 30th July 2020 after taking the ethical clearance from the Institutional Review Committee of Kathmandu Medical College (reference no. 207202002). Convenient sampling method was used. All the data were entered in Statistical Package for the Social Sciences data 20.0 and analyzed. Data was presented in frequencies, charts and percentage.

Results: Among the total 273 cases, only 2 (0.73%) cases had a score between 25-30 corresponding to moderate to severe anxiety, 21 (7.69%) had a score between 18-24, which corresponds to mild to moderate anxiety and 250 (91.57%) had score 0-17 which corresponds mild status.

Conclusions: Most of the participants in the study reported a mild status of anxiety. Very few participants reported moderate to severe anxiety.

Figure 1.. Distribution of the participants according to the period of gestation.

Figure 2.. Distribution of the participants according to the category of the Zones of Nepal.