Hipertensão na gestação : estratégias de enfrentamento, fatores de personalidade e alterações emocionais

Abstract

Pregnancy is a physiological phenomenon. During this period several physical and psychological transformations occur, leading to a number of changes in the woman's organism and life. Hypertension is one of the most common health problems in pregnancy. It is associated with adverse outcomes, contributing to maternal and fetal morbidity and mortality. Despite the numerous published studies on hypertension in pregnancy, the association between behavioral factors during pregnancy and hypertensive disease is still inconsistent. Thus, this thesis evaluated emotional changes, personality factors and coping strategies in pregnant women with and without hypertension during pregnancy. Therefore, we have conducted a contemporary, cross-sectional study at the São Lucas Hospital/PUCRS, at the Nossa Senhora da Conceição Hospital and at the Catholic University of Valencia San Vicente Mártir in Spain. The following instruments were employed: the fivefactor model for major personality factors - Big Five; the depression, anxiety and stress scale and the Jalowiec coping scale. Data was collected from 592 pregnant women. Of that total, 232 acted as control subjects and 360 were hypertensive. The pregnant women in the control group had higher scores on personality factors classified as openness to experience, extroversion and agreeableness when compared with the hypertensive group. Women in the hypertensive group had higher scores of depression, stress and anxiety symptoms. In addition, hypertensive pregnant women had worse coping strategies when compared to the control group. By analyzing the subgroups of hypertensive pregnant women, it was found that women with preeclampsia syndrome have worse performance in all emotional variables evaluated. It was observed that women with better coping strategies tend to have fewer symptoms of depression, stress and anxiety. The data suggest that there are behavioral changes in hypertensive pregnant women that point out the need for caring not only to the clinical aspect, but also to psychological needs, leading towards the reduction of perinatal complications.