**1. Introduction**

The current COVID-19 pandemic is considered to be an example of a natural disaster with such a heavy global health burden, from which more than 236 million people worldwide are suffering and almost 5 million people have died [1]. Poland ranks 16th among the countries with the highest number of coronavirus cases in the world, with 2,918,863 people infected and 75,834 deaths [2].

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused panic and mental health problems around the world [3]. Frequent preventive measures (e.g., washing hands, masking, social distancing, and isolation) during a pandemic obsess people, which increases the risk of psychological damage [4]. Moreover, the pandemic has caused changes in everyday life, which has increased the risk of anxiety and depression [5].

Pregnant women are more vulnerable to any effects of the COVID-19 crisis, which requires action to protect this population [6]. During a pandemic, pregnant women have

**Citation:** Janik, K.; Cwalina, U.; Iwanowicz-Palus, G.; Cybulski, M. An Assessment of the Level of COVID-19 Anxiety among Pregnant Women in Poland: A Cross-Sectional Study. *J. Clin. Med.* **2021**, *10*, 5869. https://doi.org/10.3390/jcm10245869

Academic Editors: Michele Roccella and Elena Tomba

Received: 8 October 2021 Accepted: 13 December 2021 Published: 14 December 2021

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**Copyright:** © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/).

limited access to primary health care services [7]. Additional factors affecting their mental health are concerns about exposure to COVID-19 and concerns about COVID-19 vaccinations [8]. The prevalence of mental disorders in pregnant women was much higher during the COVID-19 pandemic than in the pre-pandemic period [9,10]. Fear of COVID-19, anxiety, and depression were the most common mental disorders among pregnant women [11,12]. Such disorders were associated with adverse effects of pregnancy, such as preterm labor, low for gestational age, and low birth weight of the newborn [13,14].

While COVID-19 is well-known to cause considerable fear among the general population, there is a little data on the perceived anxiety related to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic in Poland, particularly among pregnant women. Therefore, the aim of the study was to analyse and assess the symptoms of COVID-19-related anxiety among pregnant women; in particular, to evaluate trait and state anxiety along with health anxiety and generalized anxiety disorder. Additionally, we assessed the impact of selected variables on the severity of anxiety symptoms in the study group. We assumed that the severity of anxiety disorders among pregnant women in Poland would be moderate.
