Anxiety symptoms and health-related quality of life in mainland Chinese pregnant women: a cross-sectional study

ABSTRACT

Objective

Health-related quality of life allows the health care professionals to envisage new axes of improvement in antenatal care and is a core aspect of contemporary maternity care provision. This study aims to estimate the prevalence of anxiety symptoms and explore the relationship between anxiety symptoms and health-related quality of life among Chinese pregnant women.

Methods

A cross-sectional study was conducted in a local teaching hospital in Guangzhou, China between April and June, 2018. Seven hundred and seventy Chinese pregnant women completed the 36-Item Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36), the Self-rating Anxiety Scale (SAS) and socio-demographic questionnaires.

Results

18.2% women were classified as having elevated anxiety symptoms as evidenced by a SAS score ≥50. Compared with women without anxiety symptoms, the pregnant women with anxiety symptoms had worse physical (SF36-PCS) and mental (SF36-MCS) health-related quality of life and a lower level of seven domains of SF-36 (GH, RP, BP, VT, SF, RE and MH). Elevated anxiety symptoms predicted worse physical (SF36-PCS) and mental (SF36-MCS) health-related quality of life. The third trimester predicted a lower level of physical (SF36-PCS) health-related quality of life, while an unsatisfied relationship with mother-in-law predicted a lower level of mental (SF36-MCS) health-related quality of life.

Conclusions

The pregnant women with anxiety symptoms had impaired health-related quality of life. Health care professionals should identify pregnant women with anxiety symptoms and facilitate their treatment, which could improve their health-related quality of life.

KEYWORDS:

• Anxiety
• health-related quality of life
• pregnancy
• Chinese

Acknowledgments

The views expressed within this submitted article belong to the authors and are not an official position of any other institution or funder. The authors appreciate the contribution and participation of all study participants.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Author contributions

Jing-ping Yang, Ke Sun and Ling-ling Gao contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by Jing-ping Yang and Ke Sun. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Ling-ling Gao. Jia Qu has made critical revisions to the paper for important intellectual content. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Availability of data and material

The dataset analysed during the current study is not publicly available because consent was not been obtained from the study participants for this. Deidentified data may be made available from the corresponding author on a reasonable request, subject to permission from the relevant ethics committees at the hospital and university.

Additional information

Funding

This study was funded by the Humanity and Social Science Foundation of Chinese Ministry of Education (17YJAZH023);