Knowledge, attitudes, and behaviours of pregnant women towards COVID-19: a cross-sectional survey

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: This study investigated the knowledge, attitudes, and behaviours of pregnant women towards coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), as well as obstetric services provided by public hospitals (eg, universal screening) during the pandemic. METHODS: This cross-sectional survey was performed in the antenatal clinics of Kowloon East Cluster, Hospital Authority. Questionnaires were distributed to pregnant women for self-completion during follow-up examinations. RESULTS: In total, 623 completed questionnaires were collected from 28 July 2020 to 13 August 2020. Within this cohort, 83.1% of the women expressed high levels of worry (41.9% very worried and 41.3% worried) about contracting COVID-19 during pregnancy, 70.5% believed that maternal COVID-19 could cause intrauterine infection of their fetuses, and 84.3% objected to banning husbands from accompanying wives during labour and delivery. Most women (80.6%) agreed with universal screening for COVID-19 at certain points during pregnancy. Logistic regression modelling showed that women who were very worried about contracting COVID-19 (P=0.005) and women in their third trimester of pregnancy (P=0.009) were more likely to agree with universal screening during pregnancy; women with higher income (P=0.017) and women who planned to deliver in a private hospital (P=0.024) were more likely to disagree with such screening. CONCLUSION: Pregnant women expressed high levels of worry about contracting COVID-19 during pregnancy; universal screening during pregnancy was acceptable to a large proportion of our participants. Efforts should be made to specifically include pregnant women when launching any population screening programme for COVID-19.