Psychometric evaluation of the pregnancy-related anxiety questionnaire—revised 2 for Chinese pregnant women

Abstract

IntroductionPregnancy related anxiety (PrA) is a unique type of anxiety during pregnancy. PrA can affect both maternal and infant health, as well as pregnancy outcomes. The purpose of this study was to culturally translate the Pregnancy-Related Anxiety Questionnaire—Revised 2 (PRAQ-R2) into Chinese and evaluate its psychometric properties in Chinese women during pregnancy irrespective of parity. MethodsThere were 411 Chinese pregnant women recruited from September 2020 to June 2021. The Cronbach's alpha, split-half reliability, and test-retest reliability were used to evaluate the reliability of PRAQ-R2 Chinese version. Validity was analyzed through content validity, convergent validity, discriminant validity and construct validity. ResultsThe Chinese version of PRAQ-R2 showed good reliability and validity. The Cronbach's alpha coefficients of the total scale and subscales were all greater than 0.7. The median score (interquartile range, IQR) of PRAQ-R2 was 27 (32, 22). The correlation coefficient between item and hypothesis subscale were all greater than 0.40, indicating good convergence validity. Our findings revealed three dimensions of this scale by exploratory factor analysis and confirmed the original version of PRAQ-R2: worries about bearing a handicapped child, concern about own appearance, and fear of giving birth, with a total variance of 72.84% explained. The confirmatory factor analysis showed accepted model fit indexes. LimitationsAll pregnant women were recruited from one region in China, and the study lacked the longitudinal design. Future longitudinal multi-central studies are needed. Conclusion: The Chinese version of PRAQ-R2 can be used as a promising tool to measure PrA in Chinese pregnant women without comorbidities and complications.