PSYCHOSOCIAL AND MEDICAL FACTORS IN PREGNANCY OUTCOMES - A CASE-STUDYOF ISRAELI WOMEN

Building on a body of research which confirms that psychosocial factor s have an important influence on health in general and on pregnancy ou tcomes in particular, we carried out a prospective study of pregnant w omen in Israel. We hypothesized that medical pregnancy and delivery ou tcomes are mediated by psychosocial coping resources and risks. Resour ces were defined as social ties, and risks as life events self-reporte d as stressful. The population studied included 233 women who responde d to questionnaires after the second trimester of pregnancy. Medical d ata on the delivery were collected from hospital archives. The questio nnaire measured biomedical risks, including general medical and obstet rical history, as well as health behaviours, social ties, and perceive d stress. Pregnancy outcomes were classified according to medical meas ures of abnormalities in mother and child at birth. Our findings show that resources such as the variety of social ties (family, friends, ne ighbours and colleagues) interacted significantly with biomedical risk . It was found that low scores for social ties anticipated 3.6 times h igher negative medical outcome in otherwise healthy women than in thos e with higher scores for social ties. The findings of the study are di scussed in terms of their implications for relating to social competen ce as a determining element in health and health behavior.