Assessment of the psychological impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on pregnant women

Abstract

Purpose: This is a cross-sectional observational study that aims to evaluate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in pregnant women.

Method: A form containing the validated Impact of Event Scale – Revised questionnaire was sent to the participants.

Results: From the 106 participants, 13 had been contaminated by the Sars-Cov2 virus during the pregnancy. More than half of the women (51.89%) presented some degree of psychological impact, 20 participants were classified as having a mild impact, 6 with moderated impact and 29 with severe impact. The psychological impact was more prominent in women in their third gestational trimester, 36.07% of these women presented a severe impact, 4.92% a moderated impact and 14.75% a mild impact. The IES-R questionnaire had a mean score of 35.62 in the group of contaminated patients, indicating a higher psychological impact in comparison with the mean score of 26.76 in the group of patients who were not contaminated by the vírus.

Conclusion: It can be inferred that the pregnant women who were not contaminated by the Sars-Cov2 presented a lower psychological impact than those who were contaminated. In addition, patients with lower psychological impact did not miss their ultrasound exams. Furthermore, more than half of the women who participated in the study, whether they were contaminated or not, presented some degree of psychological impact.

Keywords:

• Pregnancy
• coronavirus infections
• pandemics
• prenatal care
• Health Impact Assessment

Acknowledgments

First of all, we would like to thank the Catholic University of Brasilia and the entire faculty for providing an adequate environment for research. We are also grateful to Clínica SAGO, Nexus Ultrasonografia and CDUS for believed in the research proposal and providing contact with pregnant patients.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.