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Levels of depressive and anxious symptoms of pregnant women before vs. during the COVID-19 pandemic

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 August 2021

M. Barros ,
M. Aguiar ,
A. Macedo ,
J. Azevedo  and
A.T. Pereira
M. Barros*
Affiliation:
Departamento De Ciências Naturais, Universidade do Sudoeste da Bahia - UESB, Vitória da Conquista, Bahia, Brazil
M. Aguiar
Affiliation:
Departamento De Ciências Naturais, Universidade do Sudoeste da Bahia - UESB, Vitória da Conquista, Bahia, Brazil
A. Macedo
Affiliation:
Institute Of Psychological Medicine, Faculty Of Medicine, University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal
J. Azevedo
Affiliation:
Institute Of Psychological Medicine, Faculty Of Medicine, University of Coimbra, coimbra, Portugal
A.T. Pereira
Affiliation:
Institute Of Psychological Medicine, Faculty Of Medicine, University of Coimbra, coimbra, Portugal
*
*Corresponding author.

Abstract

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Introduction

The effects on the population’s mental health due to the rapid global spread of COVID-19 are even greater for specific groups such as pregnant women.

Objectives

To compare levels of depressive and anxiety symptoms of pregnant women before vs. during the COVID-19 pandemic and to analyze the role of COVID-19 fear in perinatal psychological disorder.

Methods

200 Brazilian women evaluated during the pandemic in May-June 2020 (Sample-1) with the Brazilian Covid-19 Fear Scale for the Perinatal Period (Barros et al. 2020) and Screening for Perinatal Depression and the Perinatal Anxiety Crawl Scale, both with α> .90. Sample-1 was compared with a sample of 300 Portuguese women; these responded to the same questionnaires, before the pandemic, in 2017 and 2018 (Sample-2).

Results

Sample-1 had significantly higher mean scores of depression (52.73 ± 20.26 vs. 35.87 ± 16.98, t = 10.77, p <.001) and anxiety (36.58 ± 18.23 vs. 18.50 ± 13.71, t = 11.94, p <.001) and correlated significantly (p <.05) and moderate (r.30) with the fear of COVID-19. Hierarchical regression analyzes showed that, even after controlling for the effect of risk factors for PPP (Pereira et al. 2020), fear of COVID-19 is a significant predictor of depressive symptomatology levels (increments of 2-5%) and anxious (10-15%) during the pandemic.

Conclusions

The Sample-1 being from a different country may be a confusing factor, however, the magnitude of differences in PPP levels and the relevant role of fear in COVID-19, alert us to be aware of perinatal mental health.

Keywords

anxiety and depressionpandemicFearpregnancy
Type
Abstract
Information
European Psychiatry , Volume 64 , Special Issue S1: Abstracts of the 29th European Congress of Psychiatry , April 2021 , pp. S398 - S399
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the European Psychiatric Association
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