Symptoms across pregnancy in relation to psychosocial and biomedical factors

Background. There is current interest in symptoms during pregnancy, but yet little is known about their prevalence and how often they are experienced across pregnancy. The reasons why some women experience more symptoms or ex perience them more often than others has received limited research attentio n. Objective. To document the prevalence and Frequency of 27 pregnancy symptom s and to systematically investigate, cross-sectionally and prospectively, t he effect of psychosocial factors on the prevalence and frequency of these symptoms, while controlling for biomedical factors. Methods. Four hundred and seventy-six nulliparous Scandinavian women who at tended routine prenatal care in Uppsala county Sweden, were studied six tim es during pregnancy (gestational weeks 10, 12, 20, 28, 32, and 36). Results. The prevalence of symptoms was high, but only a smaller portion of these symptoms were experienced frequently. Psychological stress particula rly contributed to the prevalence and frequency of concurrent symptoms and predicted symptoms up to 16 weeks later, independent of medical risk, smoki ng, and weight gain. Conclusions. Prevalence rates may be inflated, because many symptoms were e xperienced only 'occasionally' during each of the 4-week periods we sampled . By examining how frequently symptoms were experienced, we gained an indic ation of which symptoms are more likely to be bothersome or intrude upon da ily activities. Psychosocial variables accounted for individual differences in symptom reports after taking biomedical factors into account. Attention to psychosocial variables in future studies will aid in our understanding of the etiology of pregnancy symptoms.