Conference Proceedings - School of Nursing & Midwifery - Trinity ...

School of Nursing & Midwifery, Trinity College Dublin: 8 th Annual Interdisciplinary Research Conference
Transforming Healthcare Through Research, Education & Technology: 7 th – 9 th November 2007
Conference Proceedings
The Impact of Time upon the Severity and Distress Scores of Group
I Symptoms
One-way ANOVA reveals statistically significant differences in the
increase for severity and distress scores for the majority of physical
(Tables 11, 12) and psychological symptoms (Tables 13, 14)
between the 1 st and 3 rd trimesters of pregnancy for those in the
experimental group. Between the 3 rd trimester of pregnancy and the
postpartum period the severity scores for physical symptoms show
a significant decrease except for “poor appetite” which is nonsignificant.
The severity and distress scores for psychological
symptoms show a similar trend except for two symptoms “sleeping
less than usual” and “early morning waking” which show a
statistically significant increase over this period. Four symptoms
show no statistically significant differences here.
By contrast in the control group, one-way ANOVA of the severity
and distress scores for both physical (Tables 15, 16) and
psychological symptoms (Tables 17, 18) between 3 and 6-month
comparative time periods are not statistically significant: severity
and distress of physical symptoms). The only exception is the
symptom of “toothache” which reveals a significant decrease at the
6 month compared to the 3-month period.
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