Assess the Quality of Life and Emotional Distress among Infertile Women in a Tertiary Care Center
Deeksha Yadav, Sudha Mishra, Anjoo Agrawal
Keywords :
Emotional distress, Infertility, Quality of life, Women
Citation Information :
Yadav D, Mishra S, Agrawal A. Assess the Quality of Life and Emotional Distress among Infertile Women in a Tertiary Care Center. Int J Infertil Fetal Med 2024; 15 (1):39-49.
Background: Infertility is a major life crisis that causes serious mental health problems and stressful experiences for infertile couples.
Aim: This study aimed to assess the quality of life (QOL) and emotional distress of infertile women and determine the correlation between them and their association with variables.
Materials and methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted on 115 subjects diagnosed with infertility who were attending the infertility clinic of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology of a tertiary care teaching center in North India. QOL and emotional distress were assessed with the fertility of QOL (FertiQOL) and depression, anxiety, and stress (DASS) scale 42 questionnaires. Sociodemographic and clinical details were also obtained from the infertile women by using a semistructured sociodemographic pro forma.
Result: Most of the infertile women reported poor QOL and severe emotional distress, with a mean FertiQOL score of 45.42 (15.59) and a mean DASS score of 78 (13). QOL was negatively correlated with emotional distress. Sociodemographic and clinical variables were significantly associated with QOL and emotional distress.
Conclusion: The finding of this study revealed that infertile women had significantly poor QOL as well as severe emotional distress. There is a need to incorporate psychological interventions into routine practice at infertility clinics, which is beneficial. However, it is clear that psychological interventions and counseling by liaison nurses for women with infertility have the potential to decrease anxiety and depression and may well lead to significantly higher pregnancy rates.
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