Anxiety and Stress Assessment Tools During Pregnancy: a Scoping Review

Abstract

Introduction

Pregnancy is a period of transition to parenthood characterized by joy, but also by feelings of anxiety and stress.¹ Anxiety and stress assessment tools allow nurses to detect these feelings early on during pregnancy, identify needs and plan interventions with the future parents.

Objective

To identify, in the scientific literature, anxiety and stress assessment tools for future parents, during pregnancy

Methods

We search databases CINAHL Ultimate ®, MEDLINE Ultimate ®, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews ®, Scopus ®, ScienceDirect ®, Web of Science® and Open access Repositories in Portugal on 30 April 2024 according to the guidelines issued by the Joana Briggs Institute (JBI).² The Participants, Concept and Context (PCC) strategy was used, where the participants (P) were future parents, the concepts (C) were anxiety, stress and pregnancy and the context (C) were articles that included quantitative assessment tools. We included quantitative studies, with no language or time limitations, in order to answer the question: Which tools are used to assess anxiety and stress in future parents during pregnancy?

Results

We obtained 32 articles comprising 16 instruments for assessing anxiety and stress in future parents during pregnancy. Of these, ten assess anxiety and six assess stress. The instruments were mostly applied in all trimesters of pregnancy, but the vast majority of studies focused on pregnant women in the third trimester.

Conclusion

Research into feelings of anxiety and stress has predominantly been carried out in pregnant women, and there is little knowledge about their presence in fathers. Of the 16 instruments mapped, only one has been validated for the Portuguese population, but not for future fathers during the process of pregnancy thus, it is important to fill this gap with further research.