Nausea and vomiting of pregnancy (NVP) is frequent, affecting up to 70-85% of pregnant women. However, severity of NVP especially in clinical practice is often uncertainly assessed and thus both under- and overdiagnosing is probable. Furthermore, risk factors for NVP, although recognized, are not well established. The aim of our study was to evaluate the severity of NVP with a structured questionnaire and evaluate associative risk factors.
Sample of 2411 women were recruited from maternity health care clinics. Severity of NVP was assessed with pregnancy-unique quantification of emesis (PUQE) questionnaire. Age, previous pregnancies, previous deliveries, previous miscarriages including ectopic pregnancies, previous pregnancy terminations, nationality, pre-pregnancy body mass index, smoking, marital status and employment were used as explanatory factors.
Altogether 88.0% of the women reported some level of NVP, of which 6.4% was severe, 52.2% moderate and 29.4% mild. Daily duration of NVP was?=?four hours in 12?h in 45.0%. Further, 18.8% of the women had vomiting episodes?=?three times and 37.4% retching episodes?=?three times in 12?h. Women with?=?two previous pregnancies had increased risk for more severe NVP (OR 2.17, 95%CI; 1.34-3.51, p?