Maternal characteristics according to general anxiety in the first half of pregnancy and pregnancy-related anxiety
| General anxiety | Pregnancy-related anxiety | ||||||
| Low, n=4400* | High, n=1972* | p-Value† | Low, n=5697* | High, n=709* | p-Value† | ||
| Anxiety score | Median (min–max) | ||||||
| Nulliparae | 33 (20–42) | 49 (43–80) | 21 (10–27) | 30 (28–40) | |||
| Multiparae | 33 (20–42) | 49 (43–74) | 18 (9–23) | 26 (24-36) | |||
| Age (years) | Mean (95% CI) | 31.5 (31.4 to 31.7) | 29.7 (29.5 to 30.0) | <0.001 | 31.2 (31.1 to 31.4) | 28.7 (28.3 to 29.2) | <0.001 |
| Ethnicity | % | <0.001 | <0.001 | ||||
| Dutch | 63.5 | 38.9 | 58.8 | 30.1 | |||
| Turkish | 2.6 | 8.6 | 3.6 | 12.9 | |||
| Moroccan | 5.4 | 12.1 | 6.5 | 15.3 | |||
| Black | 6.5 | 12.8 | 8.6 | 8.1 | |||
| Other Western | 14.1 | 13.3 | 13.7 | 14.4 | |||
| Other non-Western | 7.9 | 14.3 | 8.9 | 19.3 | |||
| Education (years) | Mean (95% CI) | 9.6 (9.5 to 9.7) | 7.5 (7.3 to 7.7) | <0.001 | 9.2 (9.1 to 9.3) | 7.1 (6.8 to 7.5) | <0.001 |
| Prepregnancy BMI (kg/m2) | Mean (95% CI) | 22.8 (22.7 to 22.9) | 23.8 (23.6 to 24.0) | <0.001 | 23.0 (22.9 to 23.1)‡ | 23.8 (23.5 to 24.1)‡ | <0.001 |
| Nulliparae | % | 59.1 | 49.5 | <0.001 | |||
| Smoking in pregnancy | % | 7.3 | 15.2 | <0.001 | 9.0 | 15.0 | <0.001 |
| Alcohol in pregnancy | % | 24.7 | 16.0 | <0.001 | 22.9 | 15.3 | <0.001 |
| Hypertensive disorders | % | 12.2 | 12.5 | 0.70 | 12.1 | 12.9 | 0.54 |
| Diabetes | % | 1.8 | 3.1 | 0.001 | 2.1 | 3.1 | 0.08 |
| Gestational age | % | 0.27 | 0.87 | ||||
| <37 weeks | 5.0 | 6.0 | 5.4 | 5.1 | |||
| 37–41 weeks | 85.7 | 84.7 | 85.4 | 85.2 | |||
| ≥42 weeks | 9.3 | 9.3 | 9.2 | 9.7 | |||
| Care start labour | % | <0.001 | 0.29 | ||||
| Primary care | 60.1 | 54.6 | 58.6 | 56.6 | |||
| Secondary care | 39.9 | 45.4 | 41.4 | 43.4 | |||
| Birth weight (g) | Mean (95% CI) | 3473 (3456 to 3490) | 3379 (3354 to 3405) | <0.001 | 3450 (3435 to 3465) | 3391 (3351 to 3431) | 0.009 |
*Missing values were excluded (range 0–217).
†Continuous variables: Student’s t-test and/or Mann-Whitney U test; categorical variables: Pearson’s χ2 test.
‡No comparison possible between nulliparous and multiparous women because the P90 in each group was used as a cut-off for high pregnancy-related anxiety.