Adaptation, validity and reliability study of pregnancy symptom inventory and examination of symptoms based on trimesters

This study was planned to adapt the Pregnancy Symptom Inventory (PSI) to the Turkish, and to study its validity and reliability and to identify the distribution of the five most common symptoms in trimesters. Two hundreds ten pregnants with a mean age of 30,44 ± 4,35 years were included in the study. Demographic, physical and obstetric characteristics and life style information of all pregnants included in the study were recorded. The reliability and validity of PSI were examined by analyses of internal consistency, test-retest, language and criterion validation. In the criterion validity, the correlation coefficients between the PSI scores and "Tilburg Pregnancy Distress Scale","State-Trait Anxiety Inventory", "Beck Depression Inventory" and "Nottingham Health Profile" scores were evaluated. In addition, the general prevalance of the symptoms and the five most common symptoms in trimesters were examined. According to the results of the study, the internal consistency (Cronbach alfa=0,88) and test-retest reliability (r=0,99) of the PSI were found to be quite high. The frequency of pregnancy symptoms and its effect on daily life were found to be associated with distres, anxiety, depression and poor quality of life during pregnancy (p<0,05). According to the general prevalance of the symptoms, the most common symptoms were tiredness/fatique, urinary frequency, increased vaginal discharge, back/low back pain and sleep problems, respectively. According to trimesters, tiredness/fatique, urinary frequency, increased vaginal discharge and back/low back pain were common in all trimesters. Nausea in 1. trimester, reflux in 2. trimester and sleep problems in 3. trimester were also common. The Turkish-PSI, which is a reliable and valid for the evaluation of symptoms of Turkish pregnant women, should be included as an outcome measure in clinical researches and further studies representing different socio-cultural sections of Turkey and comparing the results with our study should be planned.