Depression, anxiety and stress in the various trimesters of pregnancy in women referring to Tabriz health centres, 2016

ABSTRACT

This study was conducted to investigate the depression, anxiety and stress status in the various trimesters of pregnancy. This cross-sectional study was conducted on 605 pregnant women referring to Tabriz health centres and health bases by using a two-stage cluster sampling method. Data were collected using the socio-demographic characteristics questionnaire and the Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS-21). The Kruskal Wallis statistical test was used to analyze the data. Some 22.8% of the women were depressed in the first trimester, 30.3% in the second trimester and 36.6% in the third trimester. The corresponding percentages were 17.3%, 12.2% and 27.3% for the anxiety variable and 19.8%, 24.7% and 31.7% for the stress variable. According to the results of this study, in addition to the routine care provided during pregnancy, programmes must be developed to evaluate, diagnose and treat possible mental disorders during this period so that the health of pregnant women and their newborns can be guaranteed.

Keywords:

• depression
• anxiety
• stress
• prevalence
• pregnancy

Acknowledgements

This article is part of a research project (ethics code: ir.tbzmed.rec.1392.244). The researchers hereby expresses gratitude to the Research Deputy of Tabriz University of Medical Sciences for funding and would like to sincerely thank all the pregnant women who patiently took part in the research.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Fatemeh Effati-Daryani works in the Nursing and Midwifery faculty, Urmia University of Medical sciences-Iran as an instructor.

Sakineh Mohammad-Alizadeh-Charandabi is an associate professor of reproductive health. She works in the Nursing and Midwifery faculty, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences-Iran. She has also supervised several PhD and MSc thesis about women health.

Somayeh Zarei works in Hazrat_e Zahra Hospital at Qom University of Medical Sciences-Iran as a midwife.

Azam Mohammadi works in the Nursing and Midwifery faculty, Arak University of Medical sciences-Iran as an instructor.

Mojgan Mirghafourvand works in the Nursing and Midwifery faculty, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences-Iran. She is an associate professor of reproductive health and supervised several MSc theses regarding women health, especially in pregnancy and postpartum periods.

ORCID

Sakineh Mohammad-Alizadeh-Charandabi http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4785-9333