Quality of life of pregnant women referred to health centers in Izeh (2010)

Background: Pregnancy is often considered as a stressful period with physiological and psychological variations. These changes may reduce quality of life in many women. The present study was aimed to determine the quality of life in pregnant women referred to health centers of Izeh city, Central Iran.

Methods: A descriptive and analytical study carried out on 300 pregnant women who had referred to health centers of Izeh city for prenatal care during 2010. Data collection tools were demographic and short form (sf-36) questionnaires that were completed by interviews. Data were analyzed using SPSS and chi-square, ANOVA and t-tests at 0.05 significant level.

Results: The mean acquired score of quality of life of pregnant women was 62.9±17.3. The highest score of quality of life was related to social functioning dimension (82.2 ± 21.8) and lowest scores were related to Energy/ fatigue (50.6 ± 18.7) and Role limitations due to physical health dimensions (51.4 ± 42.7). There was no significant relationship between mean of quality of life and age, gestational age, parity, educational level and accommodation types. The quality of life score in wanted pregnancies was higher than unwanted pregnancies (P=0.002).

Conclusion: Planning to improve various dimensions of quality of life during pregnancy especially in Energy/ fatigue dimension and its influencing factors highly recommended.