Poor marital support associate with anxiety and worries during pregnancy in Greek pregnant women.

OBJECTIVE

a wide range of psychosocial variables may influence pregnant women's psychological status. However the association between marital and social support, anxiety and worries during pregnancy is a relatively neglected area of research. Therefore, the aim of this study was to examine the relationship between marital support, social support, antenatal anxiety and pregnancy worries after controlling for the effects of background variables.

SETTING

public hospital in Athens, Greece.

DESIGN

a cross-sectional study.

PARTICIPANTS

165 pregnant women attending an antenatal clinic for antenatal screening between January 2011 and March 2011.

METHODS

anxiety was measured using the State scale of the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, pregnancy worries were measured with the Cambridge Worry Scale, social support with the Social Support Questionnaire-6 and marital satisfaction with the Quality of Marriage Index. Pearson's correlation coefficients were calculated among all study variables, followed by hierarchical multiple linear regression.

FINDINGS

a STAI score of ≥43 was taken as indicative of anxiety and 44.4% of participants responded with a score of 43 or above. Linear regression analysis showed that conception after IVF treatment and low marital satisfaction were both significantly related to anxiety and pregnancy worries. In addition, low income level was significantly related to pregnancy worry whereas low educational level was related to anxiety.

CONCLUSION

the risk factors found in this study could help clinicians target anxiety screening to high-risk populations of pregnant women. Health care professionals and midwives in particular should be trained in the detection and management of anxiety and worries during pregnancy.