The Effect of Telephone Support on the Severity of Nausea and Vomiting in the First Trimester of Pregnancy in the Primiparous Women

Abstract

Objective: to evaluate the effect of telephone support on the severity of nausea and vomiting in the first trimester of pregnancy in the primiparous women. Study Design: Randomized Control Trail. Study Place and Duration: Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology Bahawal Victoria hospital and primary health care facilities Bahawalpur, from January 2018 to June 2018. Material and methods: A total number of 72 patients referred to gynecology department of Nishtar hospital were included in this study. Patients were divided into two equal groups. Case group received telephone support while control group received standard care for the complaints of nausea and vomiting in pregnancy. There are 36 patients in each group. PUQE (pregnancy unique quantification of emesis\nausea) criterion was used to assess the severity of nausea and vomiting during pregnancy. Three outcome variables were assessed in order to evaluate the efficacy of the telephone support in case group, PUQE score, PUQE score severity and quality of life score. For continuous data independent t-test was applied, for nominal data chi-square test and for quality of life score Mann Whitney U-test was used. P value less than or equal to 0.05 was taken as statistically significant. Results: PUQE questionnaire was given to each patient and score was calculated. Mean PUQE score was 7.42±3.25 in the cases and 9.94±3.40 in the controls, the difference being statistically significant (p=0.002). Mild NVP, moderate NVP and severe NVP were observed in 20 (55.5%), 10 (27.8%) and 6 (16.7%) of the cases; and 8 (22.2%), 18 (50%) and 10 (27.8%) of the controls, respectively. The difference in PUQE severity was statistically different between the two groups (p=0.015). The quality of life score was also statistically much better (p=0.028) in the cases (8 (6-9)) than in the controls (7 (4.25-8)). Conclusion: Telephone support was significantly associated with better PUQE score and better quality of life score as compared to the standard care. But severity of PUQE score was not statistically significant when case and control groups were compared.

Keywords: Nausea, Vomiting, Telephone, Primiparous, Pregnancy