Effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on anxiety and depression in pregnant women

Abstract

Objective: To examine the effect of COVID-19, which caused the pandemic, on anx- iety and depression in pregnant women. Material and Methods: We analyzed the changes in the anxiety and depression lev- els of pregnant women before and after the declaration of COVID-19 as a pandemic, using the Beck Depression Inventory II (BDI-II) and Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI), which was administered to pregnant women before the oral glucose tolerance test for another study. We compared the BDI-II and BAI scores before and after the pan- demic with paired sample t-test in the same pregnant women. Results: According to the Kolmogorov–Smirnov test applied to all groups before and after the pandemic, the variables age, gravida, body mass index, number of living children, education level, and gestational diabetes status were in accordance with the normal distribution. When the results of the BDI-II and BAI before and after the pan- demic were compared, we found that both anxiety and depression scores increased statistically with the pandemic (p≤0.05). Conclusion: The COVID-19 pandemic not only affects the people physically but also affects pregnant women psychologically