Fear of COVID-19 when experiencing pregnancy or childbirth in the pandemic: what are the associated factors?
Ana Júlia de Paula, Paulo César Condeles, Jéssica Aparecida da Silva and 4 others
PMID 38088656WHAT IT FOUND
Participants, including pregnant and postpartum women, reported moderate fear of COVID-19 overall.
Those with health insurance had lower fear scores, and mothers whose newborn went to intensive or intermediate care were more likely to report high fear.
Key findings
01Among 417 participants who completed the fear scale, 19.7% (82) had a high fear score; the mean score was 20.46, which falls in the moderate fear range.
02Having health insurance was associated with lower fear scores in the general population (p=0.016).
03Among obstetric participants, having a newborn forwarded to an ICU or InCU was associated with high fear of COVID-19 (p=0.032).
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The sample was recruited online through social media and snowballing, so it was not a probability sample. Most participants were white, highly educated, living in southeast Brazil, formally employed and using health insurance. This profile may not reflect other Brazilian women. Fear was self-reported and collected at one time, so it may not match how women felt throughout pregnancy or childbirth. Data collection happened as COVID-19 vaccination was being introduced for pregnant women, which may have influenced fear scores. The online survey could not classify disease severity, and pregnant or postpartum women who died from severe COVID-19 were not included. The adjusted model did not reach statistical significance for the main associations, and the authors said the sample may have been too small to detect differences.
Declared interests
No funding or conflict-of-interest declaration is included in the supplied text.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that health insurance or newborn ICU or InCU admission caused fear. The study is cross-sectional, used a convenience online sample, and the adjusted analysis did not show statistically significant associations at the 5% level.