A survey of the psychosocial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on pregnant women attending a tertiary care centre of Eastern India - a cross-sectional study

Abstract

Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic presented an unprecedented challenge, and, as during the SARS outbreak in 2002, there was scope of overestimation of risk by pregnant women, leading to increased fear and anxiety. The aim of this study was to assess the psychosocial impact of the pandemic on pregnant women so better-informed decisions can be taken to spread awareness and alleviate their anxieties.

Material and methods: This was a cross-sectional study in a single tertiary care centre of Eastern India including 292 participants. The inclusion criteria were all pregnant women of any gestational age attending the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Bhubaneswar for antenatal check-up or delivery. The exclusion criteria were patients with severe morbidities and patients not willing to participate. The primary outcome was to determine the psychosocial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on pregnant women and to measure the anxiety level of pregnant women during the COVID-19 crisis. The secondary outcome was to determine the correlation between demographic aspects and psychosocial impact of COVID-19 pandemic on pregnant women.

Results: A self-designed questionnaire was used. Anxiety was scored using the generalised anxiety disorder scale. More than half the participants (57.9%) were not at all worried about acquiring the infection. Of all, 99.3% were scored to have no anxiety and 0.7% had moderate anxiety. Significant association of the level of anxiety was found with living with people at high risk of contracting the disease (p = 0.002).

Conclusions: The widespread awareness activities were effective and successful, as the pregnant women at the grassroots level faced minimal anxiety and were aware and assured. Studies like this help to provide feedback and formulate educational activities in future pandemics. The change in the effect on people, from panic in the previous pandemics to assurance in the current one, as found in our study, indicates the commendable work done to spread well founded information far and wide by the government, health care institutions, and workers.

Keywords: COVID-19 in pregnancy; COVID-19 psychosocial impact on pregnancy; pandemic; pregnancy in pandemic; psychosocial impact.