Comparing Anxiety and Perceived Social Support in Hypertensive and Non-Hypertensive Pregnant Women in Khorramabad, Western Iran.

Background: Pregnant women are prone to experience anxiety and life-threatening problems such as hypertension. This study aims to compare the anxiety and perceived social support in hypertensive and healthy pregnant women in Khorramabad, western Iran.

Materials and methods: This is a cross-sectional study. Participants were 400 pregnant women aged 16-50 years (54 with hypertension and 346 without hypertension) who visited an obstetrics and gynecology clinic in Khorramabad, Iran, to receive routine prenatal care from September 2022 to March 2023. Their information was collected using a demographic/obstetrics form, the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI), and the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS). The data were analyzed using independent t-test, chi-square test, Pearson's correlation test, and multiple regression analysis.

Results: Most of the women were at the gestational age of 21-32 weeks (45.70% non-hypertensive and 35.20% hypertensive). Of 54 (13.50%) hypertension women, 51 (12.75%) had gestational hypertension and three (0.75%) had chronic hypertension. The hypertensive women were older than healthy women (34.09 vs. 31.77 years, p = 0.023). The mean BAI score was higher in hypertensive women (p < 0.001). The mean total score of MSPSS was higher in hypertensive women, but the difference was not statistically significant (p > 0.05). There was a negative significant relationship between the BAI and MSPSS scores in both healthy (r = -0.13, p = 0.040) and hypertensive (r = -0.49, p = 0.001) groups. Hypertension could significantly predict about 41% of changes in anxiety.

Conclusions: Policy-makers and maternity care providers are recommended to develop targeted social support programs to help reduce the anxiety of hypertensive pregnant women.