Role of psycho-social factors in pregnant women with nausea and vomiting

Nausea and vomiting of pregnancy (NVP) is one of the most complications of pregnancy that has markedly negative effect on life quality of women. As the identification of factors affecting the complication is important, the aim of the study was to compare the socio-psychological factors in pregnant women including anxiety, depression, specific pregnancy stress, socioeconomic status, and social support in women with NVP and without NVP. This project was a causal-comparative study. Two hundred pregnant women with nausea and vomiting who were ≤12 weeks of gestational age were enrolled. All subjects filled out four questionnaires including, pregnancy experience scale (PES), depression, anxiety, stress (DASS21), social support questionnaire (SSQ) and demographic questionnaire. Statistical tests of Pearson correlation, Chi Square, and linear multiple regressions were used to analysis the data. Most of the women had mild to moderate NVP (87%). Women with VPN had significantly a higher score compared with non- NVP in the following variables: pregnancy experience stress (85.5% vs 14.5%), depression (89% vs 11.1%), anxiety (68.8% vs 31.2%), low social support (68.1% vs 31.9%) and low socioeconomic status (73% vs 26.7%). In linear multiple regression analysis, the most important positive significant variable was pregnancy stress (β=2.67). Also, negative predictors were social support (β=-0.227) and low socioeconomic status (β=-0.058). Women with NVP have specific pregnancy stress, anxiety, and depression more than women without NVP. Also, women with NVP have lower social support and socio-economic status as compared to women without NVP. This study propose that professionals of mother care could consider the role of psychosocial factors of specific pregnancy stress, socio-economic status, and social support in prevention and treatment of NVP.