1. Objectifs

Intentions :
«The objective of this study was to examine personal and contextual protective and risk factors associated with women’s mental health after a spontaneous abortion. The authors aimed to investigate whether the mental health of women who experienced spontaneous abortions varied in relation to various personal risk factors related to their age, socioeconomic status (income and schooling), and immigrant status. The authors also examined the effect of contextual risk factors, such as childlessness, number of gestational weeks, number of spontaneous abortions, and time elapsed since the spontaneous abortion, on these women’s mental health. Finally, the authors examined the association between two potential protective factors, the quality of the conjugal relationship and the level of satisfaction with health care, and the mental health of women who have experienced a spontaneous abortion.» (p. 2-3)

2. Méthode

Échantillon/Matériau :
«To be eligible to participate, women had to: […] be aged 18 years or older; […] have experienced at least one spontaneous abortion in the past four years; and […] be able to read French.» (p. 3) A total of 231 women participated in this study.

Instruments :
Questionnaire

Type de traitement des données :
Analyse statistique

3. Résumé

The results «showed a high rate of depression among the women in the study. Indeed, half of them could be classified as possibly depressed. […] The results also indicated that the women who had miscarried within the past 6 months had higher scores for depression than those who had miscarried 7 to 12 months ago. […] However, in the present study, the anxiety level and perinatal grief did not vary according to the time since the spontaneous abortion. These results suggest that, for some women, the symptoms persist long after the loss. In fact, there may be several reasons why symptoms of psychological distress and mental health would fluctuate over time, including difficulties conceiving another child, and anniversaries or other significant dates associated with the spontaneous abortion.» (p. 8) «Concerning personal and contextual characteristics, [the] results suggest that immigrant women, as well as those with a low socioeconomic status and childless women, are particularly vulnerable to mental health problems after a spontaneous abortion.» (p. 8) Thus, «[n]urses should pay special attention to immigrant women after a spontaneous abortion, in terms of monitoring for mental health issues (e.g., depression, grief, anxiety), and even more so if they have no other children or are living in precarious economic circumstances.» (p. 9)