Methamphetamine Use and Stress among Pregnant Women

Abstract

The purpose of this descriptive research was to determine 1) the prevalence of methamphetamine use,   2) stress, and 3) to compare the stress of pregnant women, who had used and had not used methamphetamine. The sample consisted of 289 pregnant women attending antenatal care at a sub-district health promotion hospital in Muang District, Udon Thani province. The questionnaire and the 20-item stress assessment form. Stress was divided into 4 levels; low, moderate, high, and severe. The alpha Cronbach coefficient was 0.95. Data were analyzed by descriptive statistics, analysis statistics were Chi-square and T-test.

The results showed that 289 samples had aged between 20 - 34 years old (65.1%), married  92.0%, completed high school 41.9%, agricultural/employed 46.7%, had not planned to become pregnant 21.5%, had not received information on the effects of drugs 17.0%, had a history of methamphetamine used 17.6%. They used during pregnancy 7.3%.  The subjects had a very low level of stress 41.5%, followed by a high level of stress 38.4%. The group I was pregnant women who had history of methamphetamine use, or used drugs during pregnancy, there were proportion of high stress levels more than those had not used the drugs in the both past and present (group II) with statistical significance (p<0.001). The mean scores of stress in group I who used methamphetamine in the past and present more than those had not use (group II), statistically significance (p<0.001).

It can be concluded that pregnant women with high stress levels, there had risks associated with methamphetamine use. Suggestion that pregnant women who use methamphetamine, and pregnant women who has high levels of stress should be referred to a physician or relevant personnel to continue to help.