Impact of Gravida and Level of Psycho-Education on Antenatal Anxiety

Abstract

The study investigated the relationship between psycho-education, and gravida on antenatal anxiety among three hundred and fifty (350) pregnant women recruited from fifteen public and private clinics in different Local Government Area, Anambra State Nigeria. The participants were selected within a six months data collection exercise. The ages of the participants ranged from 19 to 42 years with the mean age of 30 and standard deviation of 0.67. Data for study was collected with the Stirling Antenatal Anxiety Scale, modified Stirling Antenatal scale for the measurement of psycho-education and data on gravida was elicited from respondents by asking them their number of pregnancies carried. The correlational survey design and Pearson Moment Correlation Coefficient statistics was utilized for data analyses. The results showed that Psycho-education significantly and negatively correlated with antenatal anxiety r = -.332, P<.01. Gravida did not correlate significantly with antenatal anxiety r = .058, P< .05. Based on the findings, the researcher recommended that psycho-education should start before conception to prevent antenatal anxiety.