Predictors of pregnancy anxiety and its subscales in pregnant women in Birjand in 2016

Pregnancy is a highly important phase in a woman's lifetime that is associated with specific physical, psychological, and social changes. However, these changes are not always in the desired direction and sometimes cause anxiety in mothers. This study aimed to determine predictors of pregnancy anxiety and its subscales in pregnant women in Birjand, eastern Iran.
This descriptive, analytic study was performed in 2016 on 380 pregnant women referred to healthcare centers in Birjand. The participants were selected using multi-stage random sampling. Data were collected using a demographics and pregnancy records form, Pregnancy-Related Anxiety Questionnaire, and Marital Satisfaction Questionnaire. The collected data were analyzed in SPSS software (version 18) using analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) and multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA). P values less than 0.05 were considered significant.
Findings: Pregnancy anxiety mean score was 3.87 ± 1.13 (change range 1-7), indicating that 54 percent of the mothers experience pregnancy anxiety. Number of children, marital satisfaction, and (the desirability of) fetal gender accounted for 17.7% of pregnancy anxiety changes. Mother's age, planned pregnancy, parents’ educational level, parents’ employment status, number of weeks of pregnancy, and household income were not predictors of overall pregnancy anxiety.
Given the high incidence of pregnancy anxiety, health professionals are recommended to monitor highrisk pregnant women psychologically in due observance of the above-mentioned predictive variables so that the mothers would be treated through educational and psychological interventions if required.