Abstract
Objective: Nausea, vomiting and reflux are common conditions experienced by women during pregnancy. The objective of this project was to examine women’s use of health services for these conditions.
Methods: The study sample was obtained via the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women’s Health. A total of 2445 women who were pregnant or who had recently given birth in 2009 were invited to complete a sub-survey in 2010 about pregnancy and health service utilisation. A response rate of 79.2% was obtained.
Results: During their pregnancy, 604 (32.9%) respondents experienced nausea, with 255 (42.2%) of these women seeking help from a health care practitioner. A total of 201 women (11%) reported repeated vomiting, and 637 women (34.7%) reported reflux, of which 78.6% and 59.2% sought help, respectively. There were no significant differences in the mental and physical health measures between women with nausea, vomiting and/or reflux who sought
help and women who did not. Having private health insurance with obstetric cover was associated with seeking help for reflux; this was the only demographic measure significantly associated with seeking help for any condition.
Conclusion: Research is required to understand why many women do not seek professional help for common gastrointestinal conditions during pregnancy.
Methods: The study sample was obtained via the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women’s Health. A total of 2445 women who were pregnant or who had recently given birth in 2009 were invited to complete a sub-survey in 2010 about pregnancy and health service utilisation. A response rate of 79.2% was obtained.
Results: During their pregnancy, 604 (32.9%) respondents experienced nausea, with 255 (42.2%) of these women seeking help from a health care practitioner. A total of 201 women (11%) reported repeated vomiting, and 637 women (34.7%) reported reflux, of which 78.6% and 59.2% sought help, respectively. There were no significant differences in the mental and physical health measures between women with nausea, vomiting and/or reflux who sought
help and women who did not. Having private health insurance with obstetric cover was associated with seeking help for reflux; this was the only demographic measure significantly associated with seeking help for any condition.
Conclusion: Research is required to understand why many women do not seek professional help for common gastrointestinal conditions during pregnancy.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 1938-1943 |
| Number of pages | 6 |
| Journal | The Journal of Maternal-Fetal and Neonatal Medicine |
| Volume | 30 |
| Issue number | 16 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 2017 |
Keywords
- Pregnancy
- Nausea
- Vomiting
- Reflux
- Health service research