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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Marjorie Sable, DrPH, MSW, Social Work, University of Missouri, 726 Calrk Hall, Columbia, MO 65211, 5738820914, SableM@missouri.edu and Wendy L. Hellerstedt, MPH, PhD, Epidemiology, University of Minnesota, 1300 S 2nd St., Suite 300, Minneapolis, MN 55454.

Background: Given the complexity of pregnancy decision-making, surveillance has expanded to query women about various pregnancy feelings and attitudes. While pregnancy intention is associated with perinatal risk, there are few data to support such associations with pregnancy feelings/attitudes. Methods: Multivariable logistic regression analyses were conducted with 1,538 women from the 2002 National Survey of Family Growth who were 18 years and older and had a singleton livebirth in the past five years. Independent measures were pregnancy intention, happiness about pregnancy, trying to avoid/become pregnant, pregnancy desire, perceived father's satisfaction with pregnancy timing and desire to be pregnant by the father. Outcome variables were early prenatal care, ever breastfed, prenatal smoking, low birthweight, and preterm. Results: Each measure of pregnancy attitudes/feelings covaried significantly with maternal sociodemographic factors; negative attitudes concentrated among the most socially vulnerable women. The strongest correlates of outcomes were sociodemographic factors, with the pregnancy feelings/attitudes variables correlating weakly and/or inconsistently with the five outcomes in adjusted analyses. For example, compared with women who were very happy about their pregnancy, women who reported being unhappy were two times more likely to have smoked during pregnancy but twice as likely to have breastfed. Conclusions: Cautious interpretation of inconsistent, or weak, associations between measures of pregnancy feelings/attitudes with perinatal and birth outcomes is necessary. Women in NSFG do not reflect all women with negative pregnancy feelings and, because questions are asked retrospectively,responses could reflect satisfaction with the current maternal role, rather than feelings/attitudes about a distant pregnancy.

Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of this session, the participants will be able to

• Idenify common methods to assess pregnancy feelings and attitudes
• Evaluate the utility of such measures in studies of pregnancy risk.

Keywords: Pregnancy Outcomes, Reproductive Health

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Not Answered