Risk Perception, Fear and Anxiety of COVID-19 among Antenatal Mothers

Abstract

Background: COVID-19 is a new disease and is having the most devastating effects globally, its emergence and spread are causing confusion, anxiety and fear among the general public. Antenatal mothers are the most critical population group which needs additional precautions against COVID-19 due to risk of vertical transmission. The prenatal anxiety, depression and stress are also considered as prevalent health issues among pregnant women. Objectives: This study aimed to assess the risk perception, fear and anxiety of COVID-19 among antenatal mothers, to find out relationship between risk perception, levels of fear and anxiety among antenatal mothers and to measure association between risk perception, fear and anxiety with selected variables. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was used to assess among antenatal mothers using non-probability convenient sampling technique in Antenatal OPD of Gandaki Medical College Teaching Hospital Research Centre, Kaski District. Data was collected by using semi-structured interview with Likert scale to measure risk perception, fear and anxiety among antenatal mothers. Results: Most of the respondents (83.3 %) had low, 9.3% had moderate, 7.4% had high perceived score. Three fourth of the respondents (71%) had mild to moderate fear with mean FCOVID-19 score of 2-3, 17.3% had score of 1 and only 11.7% had 4-5 FCOVID-19 score. Almost half of the respondents (46.3%) had no or little anxiety, 26.5% had moderate anxiety, 21.6% had mild anxiety and 5.6% had severe anxiety disorder. There was significant strong positive correlation among risk perception, fear and anxiety (p- value <0.05). There was a significant association between ethnicity and generalized anxiety disorder, education level and fear, occupation and risk perception, family type and generalized anxiety disorder (p-value <0.05).