Association of antenatal anxiety with adverse pregnancy outcomes: A prospective hospital-based study

Anxiety is common in pregnant women. Many studies have shown association of antenatal anxiety with adverse pregnancy outcomes, though the results are conflicting. Further, there are very limited studies on the subject reported from India, due to which, the data is limited. Hence this study was undertaken.

Two hundred randomly selected consenting registered pregnant women reporting for antenatal follow up during third trimester of pregnancy were included in the study. Hindi version of Perinatal Anxiety Screening scale (PASS) was used to assess anxiety. Edinburgh Postnatal Depression rating Scale (EPDS) was used to assess comorbid depression. These women were followed up in the post-natal period to assess pregnancy outcomes. Chi-square test, Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and correlation coefficients were calculated.

Analysis was done for 195 subjects. Most women (48.7%) were between 26 and 30 yrs of age. Primigravidas comprised 11.3 % of total study sample. Mean anxiety score was 23.6 (range 5-80). Adverse pregnancy outcomes were noted in 99 women; however anxiety scores in this group were not different from the group without adverse outcomes. No significant group differences were found with respect to PASS or EPDS scores. None of the women were found to have a syndromal anxiety disorder.

Antenatal anxiety was not found to be associated with adverse pregnancy outcomes. This finding is contrary to the results obtained in earlier studies. More enquiry is needed into this area to replicate the results with clarity in larger samples, in Indian context.