Accepted for/Published in: Journal of Medical Internet Research
Date Submitted: Jun 12, 2020
Date Accepted: Dec 17, 2020
Date Submitted to PubMed: Dec 21, 2020
The mental health status and approaches of accessing antenatal care information among pregnant women during COVID-19 epidemic：a cross-sectional study in China
ABSTRACT
Background:
China is the first country experienced the large scale of COVID-19 epidemic. To interrupt the transmission, social distancing strategies were required. Many routine health care services were severely disrupted, including antenatal care services. The mental health status as well as how pregnant women reacted to the situation, where and how did they obtain antenatal care information are unknown.
Objective:
This study aimed to determine mental health status by measuring perceived stress, anxiety and depression, to explore approaches of obtaining antenatal health information and to determine their associations with the mental health status among pregnant women during COVID-19 epidemic in China.
Methods:
We conducted an online survey to assess mental health status among pregnant women and collected information on approaches of accessing antenatal care information during the COVID-19 epidemic from February 5 to 28, 2020.
Results:
A total of 1,873 women from 22 provinces/regions of China participated in the survey. The occurrence of experiencing perceived stress, anxiety and depression among pregnant women was 89.1% (95% CI: 87.6%, 90.4%), 18.1% (95% CI: 16.4%, 19.9%) and 45.9% (95% CI: 43.6%, 48.1%), respectively. Hospitals’ official accounts in the Chinese social media platforms WeChat and Weibo were the most popular channels for pregnant women to obtain antenatal care information. Access to antenatal care information and services via the hospitals’ official social media accounts were associated with a significantly lower risk of suffering from stress (adjusted odds ratio (aOR)=0.47, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.30 to 0.73, P=0.001), anxiety (aOR=0.52, 95% CI: 0.40 to 0.68, P<0.001) and depression (aOR=0.72, 95% CI: 0.58 to 0.90, P=0.003).
Conclusions:
During the COVID-19 epidemic, occurrence of experiencing perceived stress, anxiety and depression was high in Chinese pregnant women. Mental health care in the current pandemic is urgently needed to reassure and support pregnant women. Developing specific contents for pregnant women on how to cope in emergency and major disease outbreak via social media platforms could be an effective way to mitigate mental health disorders in future epidemic preparedness and response. Clinical Trial: NA
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