Development and use of a self-administered questionnaire for assessment of psychologic attitudes toward pregnancy and their relation to a subsequent premature birth.

This paper describes both the development of and results of the use of a self-administered questionnaire designed specifically to investigate the relation between the psychologic attitudes of pregnant women toward pregnancy and an eventual subsequent premature birth. The questionnaire (entitled Pregnancy Psychologic Attitudes Test--in relation to Premature Birth [PPAT(p)]) was derived from the synthesis of interviews with women who had given birth prematurely, comprised 40 questions grouped in six dimensions, and was used in a prospective survey. All women who had an antenatal visit in their fifth to sixth month of pregnancy in one of four maternity hospitals in Lyon, France, between October 1983 and March 1985 were asked to complete this questionnaire. A quantitative PPAT(p) score (ranging from 0 to 6) was constructed in a working sample (n = 643), and its relation with a subsequent premature birth was analyzed in a study sample (n = 1,500). Application of the logistic regression model showed, after controlling for personal and medical factors, that this relation was statistically significant. The risk of premature birth increased from 1 to 1.5 when the PPAT(p) score increased one point (p less than 0.001). This study contributes to a better understanding of psychologic factors that may affect pregnant women and be associated with premature birth. This new component must be considered in the development of policies for preventing premature birth.

[Construction of questionnaires for the study of psychological components in the etiology of somatic diseases. The example of prematurity]. / Construction de questionnaires pour la recherche de composantes psychologiques dans l'étiologie de maladies somatiques. Exemple de la prématurité.

A study whose aim was to define the role of psychological factors in prematurity etiology has led us to develop a methodology for evaluation of personality which could have a connection with the occurrence of a premature birth. The proposed method--interviews based on free association followed by the construction of questionnaires serving as a base for an epidemiological study--seem to us applicable in order to show the psychological components which intervene in the occurrence of a somatic illness.