Abstract:
Objective To explore the factors associated with anxiety symptoms of women in early pregnancy in Shenyang.
Methods A cross-sectional survey was conducted from January to July 2018 to ask a total of 350 pregnant women to complete a set of questionnaires who were less than 16 weeks of pregnancy from seven health service centers of Shenyang. The Self-rating Anxiety Scale (SAS), the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), the Pregnancy Stress Scale (PPS), and the Perceived Social Support Scale (PSSS) were used to evaluate anxiety symptoms, sleep quality, pregnancy stress, and social support, respectively. Multiple linear regression analysis was used to explore factors associated with anxiety symptoms in pregnant women.
Results A total of 350 questionnaires were distributed and 309 returned questionnaires were valid (88.29%). The average age of study subjects was (31.21±3.88) years old; the average anxiety symptom score was 41.99±7.45, and the anxiety symptom rate was 16.2% (50/309); the average score of sleep quality was 4.97±3.08, and 35.0% of the pregnant women had poor sleep quality; the average score of perceived social support was 71.52±11.33, and 14.2% of the subjects perceived middle and low levels of social support; the average score of pregnancy stress was 2.25±3.98, and 19.1% of the women had moderate and severe stress. Pregnancy stress and sleep quality were positively correlated with anxiety symptoms (P < 0.01), while perceived social support was positively correlated with anxiety symptoms among the women in early pregnancy (P < 0.01). According to multiple linear regression analysis, the factors associated with anxiety symptoms were sleep quality (b=0.326), perceived social support (b=-0.235), pregnancy stress (b=0.153), and exposure to noise (b=0.101).
Conclusion The influencing factors associated with anxiety symptoms of women in early pregnancy in Shenyang are sleep quality, perceived social support, pregnancy stress, and exposure to noise, which should be addressed to improve the quality of life of the mothers.