Procedures
Data collection and input were automatically conducted. All data from
the questionnaires were reviewed and the following questionnaires were
excluded: (1) maternal age <14 or >60 years; (2)
non-pregnant, with the answer of ”already delivered” or ”<0 or
>45 weeks of gestational age”; (3)
answers
with wrong format; (4) illogical answers, choosing two options that
contradict each other in multiple-choice questions. Figure 2 shows the
flow chart of our study sample selection.
The residency was based on both the city they registered for check-up
(Wuhan or Chongqing) and the region they actually in at the time of
survey. As a result of the Chinese Festival travel rush, these two
addresses may not be exactly the same sometimes. The registration area
was used as the residency for the following analyses. As a reference, a
map of the actual area is included in the study sample flow chart
(Figure 2).
We classified those aged ≧35 years as
elder
gravida. Participants were assigned into three gestational age (GA)
groups: (1) the first trimester: GA <14 complete weeks, (2)
the second trimester: GA from 14 to 27+6 weeks, (3)
the third trimester: GA ≧28 weeks. Parity was divided into nullipara and
multipara. Other grouping standards are in accordance with the
categorical options in the questionnaire.
Items measuring attitudes towards COVID-19 were designed on a five-point
scale from ”totally disagree” to ”strongly agree”. Though this part was
on the basis of three sections (Appendix), these 11 questions were
analyzed separately.
The anxiety status was assessed using the Chinese version of the SAS
scale 25, and the responses to the scale were summed
as a standard score and a degree of anxiety by an established method24,25: the scores from 20 items were calculated to
obtain a raw score ranging from 20 to 80, and the standard score was
calculated using the raw score multiplied by 1.25; the standard score
≧50 indicates anxiety status; specifically, the standard score 50-59,
60-69 and ≧70 were considered mild, moderate and severe anxiety
respectively.
The obstetrical choices included: (1) online consultation; (2) hospital
preference; (3) prenatal visit or delivery schedule; (4) decision on the
mode of delivery, child-feeding and postnatal resting; (5) the
five-degree subjective impact on pregnancy of the items including
changing schedule, reducing activities, and possible screening
examination (e.g., chest CT scan). These unstructured questions were
analyzed one-by-one.