Assessment of Levels of Anxiety and Fear of Covid-19 in a Population of Pregnant Women in Spain [Letter]

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Limits and Perspectives for the Assessment of Anxiety and Fear of COVID-19 in Pregnant Women [Response To Letter]

Dear editor

The article entitled “An Assessment of Levels of Anxiety and Fear of COVID-19 in a Population of Pregnant Women of Spain”¹ proved to be a captivating read. The study possessed five notable strengths: 1) This research is groundbreaking because it examines pregnant women as a vulnerable group during the COVID-19 pandemic; 2) A representative sample of 978 individuals is utilised, enhancing the possibility that the findings can be applied to pregnant women; 3) The psychological well-being of pregnant women is critical, as the repercussions of anxiety and fear on neonatal development are significant, and they place the health of their pregnancy above their interests; 4) Vaccination coverage and booster administration improved the perspective of pregnant women on Covid-19 transmission, as opposed to fostering optimism for adaptation; 5) This holds significant implications for implementing nursing clinical practice within a pandemic, mainly when dealing with vulnerable groups. These implications can be utilised to develop education and training programmes for pregnant women from a mental health perspective in Spain and worldwide.

Nonetheless, three limitations were identified in this study: 1) The utilisation of online questionnaires for data collection eliminates the need for direct oversight of respondent completion, thereby promoting honesty and presenting challenges in discerning respondents’ comprehension; 2) The study did not provide a regional overview (including Malaga, Madrid, Barcelona, Seville, Valencia, and other provinces in Spain) concerning expectant participants who experienced COVID-19 anxiety and fear during the first, second, and third trimesters and how this relates to vaccine dosing; 3) Cultural constraints arise due to vaccine apprehension in certain nations, particularly among susceptible populations influenced by religious beliefs. This is due to pregnant women’s fear and anxiety regarding vaccinations, which they attribute to the effect for their infant.

In light of this, it is recommended that future studies 1) employ combination methods, supplementing direct interviews with video call data collection methods. This method is anticipated to facilitate in-depth understanding and enable researchers to obtain direct responses from respondents by asking specific questions; 2) convenience sampling techniques to be representative and preferably use STROBE (STrengthening the Reporting of OBservational studies in Epidemiology) reporting;² 3) Regarding cultural constraints, it is recommended that future research incorporate samples from various cultural and religious backgrounds in order to attain a more comprehensive understanding of the fear and anxiety experienced by pregnant women as a result of Covid-19.

It can be concluded that this study generates intriguing information that is pertinent to clinical practice in developing interventions and serves for assessing the psychiatric symptoms of pregnant women.

Disclosure

The authors report no conflicts of interest in this communication.