# Prevalence of psychological symptoms in low and high-risk pregnant women: A cross-sectional study

## TL;DR

This study found that high-risk pregnant women experience more psychological symptoms like depression and anxiety compared to low-risk women.

## Contribution

The study provides new insights into the psychological differences between low and high-risk pregnant women using a comprehensive symptom checklist.

## Key findings

- High-risk pregnant women had significantly higher rates of depression, anxiety, and aggression than low-risk women.
- High-risk women reported more somatization, obsessive-compulsive, and paranoid symptoms compared to low-risk women.
- Educational programs for high-risk pregnant women may help address their increased psychological symptoms.

## Abstract

Common psychological disorders during pregnancy can have obvious harmful effects on both mother and fetus.

This study aimed to investigate the prevalence of psychological symptoms in low and high-risk pregnant women.

This cross-sectional study was conducted on 400 low-risk and high-risk pregnant women in Afzalipour hospital, Kerman, Iran from December 2017–2018. Participants were selected by census method, and the data collection tool was a 90-item questionnaire named Symptom Checklist-90.

The mean age of pregnant women was 29.1
±
6.8 yr. 7.6% had gestational diabetes mellitus, 5.9% had pregnancy hypertension, 6.6% had a history of in vitro fertilization, and 17.5% had a history of one miscarriage. 61.2 and 65.5% of high-risk women had depression and anxiety, respectively. A significant difference was observed between low-risk and high-risk women in terms of depression (p = 0.019), anxiety (p = 0.049), and aggression (p = 0.013), and the frequency of these variables was higher in high-risk women than in low-risk women.

According to age, education, and gestational period, the differences between 2 groups (low-risk and high-risk) were significant. Compared with low-risk women, high-risk pregnant women reported a higher prevalence of psychological symptoms in 10 factors. High-risk pregnant women had a significantly higher prevalence of somatization symptoms, obsessive-compulsive symptoms, depression symptoms, anxiety symptoms, hostility symptoms, and paranoid ideation than low-risk women. Therefore, educational programs during pregnancy for high-risk women can be useful.