| Description |
This is a study of the relationships between illness proneness, life change stress, and toxemia of pregnancy. Illness proneness, common pregnancy symptoms and life change stress data were obtained from the Utah-IIIC test battery developed and administered by the Pregnancy, Illness Proneness, and Stress (PIPAS) project of the University of Utah, College of Nursing. Women enrolled in prenatal classes at McKay-Dee Hospital, Ogden, Utah, were given the Utah-IIIC test battery in the second to eight month of pregnancy. The Illness Proneness (IP), Trimester Symptom, and Modified Schedule of Recent Experience (SRE) portions of the battery were used to measure general susceptibly to illness; pregnancy symptoms experienced per trimester; and life change stresses experienced during the previous 12 months, respectively. Following delivery, medical record data were used to classify the women as toxemic or normal controls. The sample consisted of 29 toxemic women and 137 normal controls. No clinically significant differences were found between toxemic and normal group mean test scores and no relationships were found between the test scores and the incidence of toxemia, with one exception. The Illness Proneness-SRE combined score for the entire 12-month period was related to the incidence of toxemia, p=.0124. A higher percentage of toxemic women had high IP-SRE scores (7.2% vs. 1.5%) but the majority of both groups (79% and 69%) had low IP-SRE scores. Discriminant analyses, using the Utah-IIIC test scores, were unable to produce functions able to differentiate between the groups, with any clinically useful degree of specificity or sensitivity. |
