Abstract
During pregnancy, physical and mental conditions are greatly changed. Changes in body alignment will affect the standing posture. Also, anxiety generally increases as the week of gestation precedes. We have recently evaluated the differences in postural control during stance between pregnant and non-pregnant women (Nagai et al., 2008). In the present study, we examined the influence of anxiety on postural control in pregnant women. Body sway during upright standing and state-anxiety (STAI-S) on the day of experiment were measured in pregnant (n = 35) and non-pregnant (n = 33) population. Each population was further divided into two groups on the basis of the median split of the distribution of STAI-S scores. The data was analysed among 4 groups, pregnant with high anxiety, pregnant with low anxiety, non-pregnant with high anxiety, and non-pregnant with low anxiety. A positive correlation (r = 0.54) was found between state-anxiety and enveloped area of body sway in pregnant group with high anxiety. Two way ANOVA (pregnancy x anxiety) showed that the enveloped area in pregnant population was greater (p < 0.02) than that in non-pregnant population. Our findings suggest that pregnancy increases body sway during upright standing and the influence of pregnancy is apparent in high anxiety population. [J Physiol Sci. 2008;58 Suppl:S109]
