Ana Cristina Barros da Cunha, Gisele Passos da Costa Gribel, Laila Pires Ferreira Akerman and Ana Carolina Rocha
Aim: Gestational risks and elective interruption of pregnancy may result in stress and hospital anxiety. The objective of this study was to investigate associations between stress, hospital anxiety, and clinical outcomes, such as metabolic, obstetric, neonatal and puerperal results.
Study design: A cohort of 42 risk pregnant women who were indicated for an elective interruption of pregnancy was investigated using the Lipp’s Stress Symptoms Inventory for Adults (LSSI), to evaluate stress symptoms at 35th gestational week and puerperium period; and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), to evaluate hospital anxiety at the delivery moment. All were attended in a pre-anesthetic consultation during pregnancy. The participants were recruited during 17 months at the Maternity School Hospital of Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro. This is a public hospital that receives patients on demand.
Results: It was observed that 48.9% of patients presented stress symptoms in their 3rd trimester of pregnancy, but this rate decreased at the puerperium, when 73.8% of them were not stressed. Significant differences were found between prenatal and puerperium stress level (p>0.05). Also, 11.9% of participants presented clinical levels of hospital anxiety by the HADS applied at delivery moment.
Conclusion: Our findings suggest that the stress level of participants was mostly related to the risk pregnancy condition and decreased after delivery. Future research must investigate the effect of pre-anesthetic consultation in hospital anxiety and its relations with gestational and post-partum outcomes.
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