IMR Press / CEOG / Volume 50 / Issue 2 / DOI: 10.31083/j.ceog5002035
Open Access Original Research
The Psychological Impacts of COVID-19 Pandemics on Pregnant Women in Hong Kong—Results of a Web-Based Cross-Sectional Survey
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1 Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
2 Department of Medical Statistics, School of Public Health, Centre of Postgraduate Medical Education, 01-826 Warsaw, Poland
3 First Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Centre of Postgraduate Medical Education, 01-004 Warsaw, Poland
*Correspondence: liona.poon@cuhk.edu.hk (Liona Chiu Yee Poon)
Clin. Exp. Obstet. Gynecol. 2023, 50(2), 35; https://doi.org/10.31083/j.ceog5002035
Submitted: 18 September 2022 | Revised: 6 December 2022 | Accepted: 14 December 2022 | Published: 1 February 2023
(This article belongs to the Special Issue COVID-19 in Pregnancy)
Copyright: © 2023 The Author(s). Published by IMR Press.
This is an open access article under the CC BY 4.0 license.
Abstract

Background: We sought to assess the anxiety and depression scores of pregnant women in Hong Kong during the COVID-19 pandemic and to evaluate the impact of demographic, economic and social factors on these scores. Methods: This was part of an ongoing worldwide cross-sectional study conducted from 22 May 2020 to 28 February 2021. Data were collected through an anonymous web-based survey. The severity of depression and anxiety was assessed using the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) score and the General Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7) score, respectively. Results: A total of 361 participants completed both the GAD-7 and PHQ-9 questionnaires. Participants with psychiatric illness reported a significant higher median GAD-7 score (6.00, interquartile range [IQR] 3.00–7.75 vs. 2.00, IQR 0.00–6.00, p = 0.001), while the median PHQ-9 score was also higher but was not statistically significant (6.50, IQR 3.00–11.00 vs. 5.00, IQR 3.00–8.00, p = 0.066). A higher proportion of participants with psychiatric illness reported moderate-severe depression and anxiety (35.7% vs. 16.5%, p = 0.002, 17.8% vs. 3.6%, p < 0.001 respectively). Multivariate regression analysis demonstrated that financial difficulty, in education and pregnancy by in-vitro fertilization were associated with a higher PHQ-9 score in pregnant women during the COVID-19 pandemic, while underlying psychiatric illness was associated with a higher GAD-7 score. Support from a partner was demonstrated to be associated with a reduced level of depression and anxiety in pregnancy. Conclusions: Pregnant women with underlying psychiatric illness were more vulnerable during the COVID-19 pandemics than the non-psychiatric counterparts. Partner support is important for alleviating depression and anxiety in pregnancy during the COVID-19 pandemic. Clinical Trial Registration: The study was registered at http://www.clinicaltrials.gov, registration number NCT04377412.

Keywords
anxiety
COVID-19
depression
mental health
patient health questionnaire
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