The effect of women's coronavirus anxiety on their pregnancy anxiety

Women were among the risk groups during the pandemic. It was thought that women would be more likely to experience anxiety due to the pandemic in addition to the psychological changes associated with pregnancy. Therefore, this cross sectional and descriptive study was conducted to determine the effect of coronavirus anxiety levels of pregnant women on pregnancy,related anxiety levels. The study sample consisted of 500 participants selected from 16,431 pregnant women admitted to the Obstetrics and Gynecology Hospital. 'Descriptive Information Form', 'Coronavirus Anxiety Scale (CAS)', 'Pregnancy,related Anxiety Scale (PRAS)' were used as data collection tools. The questionnaire form consists of three parts. The first part includes questions about the sociodemographic characteristics of pregnant women, the second part includes questions about pregnancy,related characteristics, and the third part includes questions about the characteristics related to the pandemic period. The questionnaire form, the CAS, and the PRAS were administered between June 15 and December 26, 2022. SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Sciences) for Windows 26 package program was used for data evaluation and statistical analysis. Data were evaluated using mean, standard deviation, frequency, percentage and Shapiro Wilk, Mann-Whitney U, Spearman Correlation analysis. It was determined that the difference between the mean score (2.70±4.71) of the CAS, which determines coronavirus anxiety levels, and the age at first marriage and previous mode of delivery was statistically significant. It was determined that the difference between the mean scores (76.93 ± 12.49) of the PrAS, which determines the pregnancy-related anxiety levels of pregnant women, and the woman's age, age at first marriage, number of pregnancies, gestational week, pregnancy loss, contemplated mode of delivery, avoiding going to the hospital in the pandemic, and obeying the curfew in the pandemic was statistically significant. It was found that women's coronavirus anxiety level was low and pregnancy-related anxiety level was high. It was determined that coronavirus anxiety levels of women had no effect on pregnancy-related anxiety levels.