Quality of life in women who were exposed to domestic violence during pregnancy

Abstract

BackgroundQuality of life in pregnant women is an important issue both for women’s and fetus’ health. This study aimed to examine quality of life in a group of women who were exposed to domestic violence during pregnancy.MethodsThis was a cross sectional study of quality of life among a consecutive sample of pregnant women attending to a teaching hospital in Lorestan, Iran. Women were screened for experiencing violence using the Abuse Assessment Screen (AAS) questionnaire and were categorized as psychological abused, physical abused and non-abused groups. Quality of life was assessed using the Short-Form 36 Health Survey (SF-36). One-way analysis of variance and t-test were used to examine differences in quality of life in the study sub-samples. In addition logistic regression analyses were performed to investigate the association between general health and mental health and independent variables including age, education, parity and type of violence.ResultsIn all 266 pregnant women were approached, of which 230 (86.5 %) agreed to participate in the study. Of these, 149 women (64.8 %) reported that they had experienced either physical or psychological violence during pregnancy. A significant difference between abused and non-abused groups was identified, with the abused group recording lower mean scores on all sub-scales with the exception of the bodily pain (p = 0.27). In addition comparing quality of life between physical and psychological abused groups, women who reported physical violence recorded lower mean scores for physical functioning, role physical, bodily pain and general health, while women reporting psychological abuse had lower mean scores on social functioning, role emotional, vitality and mental health. Comparison between the physically and psychologically abused groups indicated significant differences only for role physical (p = 0.04), bodily pain (p = 0.003) and general health (p = 0.04). After adjusting for age, parity, and education, physical abuse was associated with poor physical health (OR = 2.13, 95 % CI = 1.05–4.36, p = 0.03), while emotional abuse was significantly associated with poor mental health (OR = 1.89, 95 % CI = 1.09–3.84, p = 0.04).ConclusionDomestic violence against women during pregnancy in Iran was evident and this had significant adverse association with their quality of life. Indeed health care professionals involved in the care of women need to be aware of the extent of the problem and consider how it may be impacting on the women in their care.

Health-related quality of life of patients with asthma: a cross-sectional study in Semnan, Islamic Republic of Iran

“…Reid et al reported the lowest score in Vitality (12) which is in contrast to our results. Our findings showed lower MSC scores compared with the PSC scores, which is in agreement with the results of previous research (20). Although the mental score of SF 36 concentrates more on depression, anxiety is a main factor in asthma attacks (19).…”

“…In our study, the highest score was observed in Physical Pain domain and the lowest score in Emotional Role functioning. Due to the type of (12,20). Reid et al reported the lowest score in Vitality (12) which is in contrast to our results.…”

“…As expected, the mean score of the asthma group was significantly lower than that of the general Iranian adult population (15). Patients with asthma have also been reported to have lower General Health but higher Emotional Role scores compared with pregnant women experiencing domestic violence (20), lower Physical Functioning, Physical Role, General Health and Mental Health scores than adolescents with premenstrual disorder (21), lower scores in Emotional Role, Physical Role and Physical Functioning compared with patients with diabetes (22), and lower scores in all subdomains except General Health than patients with thalassemia major (23).…”

“…It can be used in different countries and for different diseases or even for comparison between groups with a disease and healthy groups (17).Validation of the SF-36 for measurement of QoL in people with asthma has been done and its suitability for this group established (19). The Farsi version of the SF-36 questionnaire has been validated (20) and used in different studies in our country (20−23).…”

Breastfeeding avoidance following psychological intimate partner violence during pregnancy: a cohort study and multivariate analysis

“…[2][3][4][5] Reported IPV prevalence is higher than many common obstetric conditions. [6][7][8][9][10][11] Does IPV also put infants at risk through avoidance of breastfeeding? 12 Literature on the effects of IPV during pregnancy on breastfeeding is sparse and has inconsistent results.…”