Effects of a Qigong Prenatal Education Program on Anxiety, Depression and Physical Symptoms in Pregnant Women

Lee, Kyeong Ock; Kim, Ki Ryeon; Ahn, Suk Hee

Abstract

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to verify the effects of a Qigong prenatal education program on anxiety, depression and physical symptoms in pregnant women. METHOD: The subjects were a total of 40 pregnant women who received regular prenatal care at S hospital. Twenty people were enrolled in the Qigong prenatal education program and were assigned to the experimental group. The other 20 people who received regular prenatal care only were the control group. The Qigong prenatal education program was given to the experimental group once a week and 2 hours per session for 4 weeks. Anxiety, depression and physical symptoms were collected by a self-administered study questionnaire at the pre- and post test. RESULT: There were no significant differences in subjects' general characteristics or pretest scores of study variables at the pretest indicating both groups were homogeneous. Differential t-tests were used to test the effects of the Qigong prenatal education program on study variables. Pregnant women who received the Qigong prenatal education program had a lower level of depression than those who did not attend(t=2.23, p=.03). There were no significant differences on anxiety and physical symptoms.
CONCLUSION
The Qigong prenatal education program was effective in alleviating depression during pregnancy. However, further study is needed to replicate the results with a greater sample size and to investigate the long term effects of the program on the labor and delivery process.