Open AccessAntenatal Health Questionnaire to Identify “Mothers with Emotional Disturbances” as a Potential Risk Group
Author(s) -
Nordström U. Lennart,
Dallas Jean H.,
Morton Hugh G.,
Patel Naren B.
Publication year - 1988
Publication title -
acta obstetricia et gynecologica scandinavica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.401
H-Index - 102
eISSN - 1600-0412
pISSN - 0001-6349
DOI - 10.1111/j.1600-0412.1988.tb07809.x
Subject(s) - medicine , incidence (geometry) , pregnancy , pediatrics , obstetrics , family medicine , genetics , physics , optics , biology
An important task in antenatal care is to identify mothers at risk during pregnancy, with the aim of minimizing morbidity and mortality. This paper describes the outcome of a health questionnaire distributed antenatally to 2086 primigravidae during the Tayside Infant Morbidity and Mortality Study 1980–81. The aim of this study was to test a health questionnaire, known to identify mothers with emotional disturbances, and investigate the outcome of their pregnancies. Two hundred and thirty‐eight mothers (11.4%) had a ‘positive’ score in this study. This rather small group of women had a significantly higher incidence of psycho‐social risk factors. The questionnaire return rate was high, more than 99%, suggesting that such a questionnaire could be used as a screening instrument to identify ‘risk mothers’.