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. 2022 Dec 30;20(1):652.
doi: 10.3390/ijerph20010652.

Unplanned Pregnancy and Depressive Symptoms during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Gilberto Assunção Costa Júnior  1 , Adriana Sousa Rêgo  1 , Andressa Pestana Brito  1 , Poliana da Silva Rêgo Furtado  1 , Thayla Thais Jatahy Pereira  1 , Lucas Frota Beckman  1 , Yuri Alfredo Araujo Mendonça  1 , Cristina Nitz da Cruz  1 , Magali Kelli Nitz  1 , Márcia Rodrigues Veras Batista  1 , Márcio Anderson Sousa Nunes  1 , Janaina Maiana Abreu Barbosa  1 , José Márcio Soares Leite  1 , Ângela Falcai  1 , Marcos Antônio Barbosa Pacheco  1 , Cristina Maria Douat Loyola  1 , Maria Raimunda Chagas Silva  1 , Wellyson da Cunha Araújo Firmo  1   2 , Flor de Maria Araujo Mendonça Silva  1
Affiliations

Unplanned Pregnancy and Depressive Symptoms during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Gilberto Assunção Costa Júnior et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. .

Abstract

This is a cross-sectional study conducted with pregnant women who underwent prenatal care at basic health units in São Luís City, Maranhão State, Brazil. The authors used a semistructured questionnaire to assess the socioeconomic, demographic, and clinical characteristics of pregnant women as well as the Edinburgh Scale to investigate depressive symptoms. In order to assess the association between the explanatory variable and the outcome variable, Poisson logistic regression was performed with statistical significance at p < 0.05. A total of 205 women were interviewed, most aged between 18 and 29 years (66.83%). Of this total, 74.63% had not planned their pregnancy and 26.67% had depressive symptoms. The variables unplanned pregnancy (PR = 1.41; CI = 0.99−2.00; p = 0.05) and not undergoing psychological counseling (PR = 1.42; CI = 0.51−0.83; p ≤ 0.01) correlated with depressive symptoms during pregnancy. It is thus possible to link the variables unplanned pregnancy (p > 0.05) and not undergoing psychological counseling (p = 0.001) to depression. Therefore, it is important to monitor the mental health of pregnant women, especially in situations of vulnerability.

Keywords: COVID-19; depression; mental health; pregnant women; public health.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Theoretical model to assess the association of depression symptoms.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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