Loneliness and pregnancy in an urban Latino community: associations with maternal age and unscheduled hospital utilization.

The objective is to compare loneliness in a pregnant population to a non-pregnant control group, and to evaluate loneliness and unscheduled hospital visits during pregnancy. A prospective cohort study in a Latino urban community including 53 consecutive pregnant women in their first trimester, and 61 non-pregnant women as a control. The UCLA Loneliness Scale version 3, and demographic information was collected. A chart review after delivery determined total number of unscheduled pregnancy related hospital visits. Appropriate data analysis using t-test and regression analysis was used. Forty-eight women continued to delivery. There was no difference in mean loneliness scores between pregnant (41) and non-pregnant groups (43), or that of normal populations (41). There was a significant association between UCLA loneliness scores and total pregnancy related unscheduled hospital visits p = 0.042, beta = 0.06, r= 0.29. There was a significant association between increasing age and increasing loneliness during pregnancy p = 0.007, beta = 0.21, r= 0.36, not seen in the non-pregnant group p = 0.98. Loneliness, when controlling for age, yielded a stronger association with unscheduled hospital visits p = 0.018, beta = 0.076, and r = 0.40. The findings were that increased loneliness is associated with increased unscheduled pregnancy related hospital utilization during pregnancy. Older pregnant women had higher loneliness scores. Loneliness was more significant than age in predicting higher unscheduled hospital visits. The combination of increased loneliness and younger age predicted the highest number of unscheduled hospital visits.