METHODS: A longitudinal cohort study. Nulliparous women, experiencing an uncomplicated pregnancy in England, were recruited between 25 and 33 weeks gestation. Participants completed two online questionnaires, (1) on recruitment, including the Pain Catastrophizing Scale (PCS) and the Wijma Delivery Expectancy Questionnaire (WDEQ-A) (2) at three weeks postnatal.
RESULTS: A total of 389 eligible participants entered the study. The percentage of women who were pain catastrophisers (PCS ≥ 20) was 28.1 %, while 7.6 % had a high pain catastrophising score (PCS ≥ 30). There was no association between pain catastrophising and the timing of hospital admission. The percentage of women reporting fear of childbirth (WDEQ-A score of ≥ 85) was 10.6 %. Fear of childbirth was highly associated with PCS scores (p <.001) at both the lower (≥20) and higher (≥30) thresholds.
CONCLUSIONS: Although not statistically significant, there was a tendency for women who pain catastrophise to present to hospital in the latent phase. The highly significant association between PCS and WDEQ-A scores has implications for the identification of these women and suggests that the PCS can be used as a screening tool to identify those women who have heightened fear around pain and who may also go on to develop clinically relevant fear of childbirth. Further studies are needed to confirm the acceptability of the PCS as a screening tool with women.
方法:纵向队列研究。未产妇女,在英国经历了一次简单的怀孕,在妊娠25至33周之间招募。参与者完成了两份在线问卷,(1)关于招聘,包括产后3周的疼痛灾难量表(PCS)和Wijma分娩期望问卷(WDEQ-A)(2)。
结果:共有389名符合条件的参与者进入研究。疼痛灾难患者(PCS≥20)的女性比例为28.1%,而7.6%的患者有较高的疼痛灾难评分(PCS≥30)。疼痛灾难与入院时间之间没有关联。报告害怕分娩(WDEQ-A评分≥85)的女性比例为10.6%。在较低(≥20)和较高(≥30)阈值时,对分娩的恐惧与PCS评分(p<.001)高度相关。
结论:虽然没有统计学意义,疼痛灾难的女性倾向于在潜伏期到医院就诊。PCS和WDEQ-A评分之间的高度显著关联对这些女性的识别具有意义,并表明PCS可以用作筛查工具,以识别那些对疼痛的恐惧加剧并且可能继续发展的女性临床相关的分娩恐惧。需要进一步的研究来确认PCS作为女性筛查工具的可接受性。