Behavioral Responses of Pregnant Women to the Early Stage of COVID-19 Pandemic in the Network Era in China: Online Questionnaire Study.
Wen-Sheng Hu, Sha Lu, Meng-Yan Xu and 3 others
PMID 34216818WHAT IT FOUND
During early lockdown, 565 pregnant women used more gloves and disinfectants, used cars more, walked or cycled less, and continued home exercise more often than 534 nonpregnant women.
News watching and spouse relationship did not differ.
Key findings
01Compared with nonpregnant controls, pregnant women used gloves (40.0% vs 20.8%), eyewear (6.2% vs 2.1%), protective clothing (1.4% vs 0.2%), and disinfectants (53.1% vs 41.6%) more often; both groups used masks at 100.0%.
02Pregnant women relied more on self-driving cars (79.5% vs 71.5%) and less on walking or cycling (6.5% vs 12.0%) than controls, and more continued exercise at home (30.6% vs 8.4%).
03There were no significant differences between pregnant women and controls in watching COVID-19 news, preferred social media platform, or spouse relationship, and no significant differences among trimester subgroups.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
Participants were married women in one city who used WeChat or a maternity app, had no mental illness, and were recruited online, so the results may not apply to unmarried women, other regions, people without these apps, or people with mental health conditions. The questionnaire was created by the research team and was not compared with another measure. The survey captured behavior only once, from February 10 to February 25, 2020, during a lockdown, so it cannot show how behaviors changed over time. No participant was infected with COVID-19, so the study cannot describe behavior during infection or pregnancy outcomes.
Declared interests
The work was funded by National Health Commission and provincial and municipal health and science programs in Zhejiang and Hangzhou. The authors reported no conflict of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that the extra protective measures or home exercise improved pregnancy outcomes. The study was a one-time survey of self-reported behavior, with no pregnancy outcomes and no test of an intervention.