Quality of Life Assessment among Infertile Couples

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

Maternity & Gynecological Nursing Department, Faculty of Nursing-Ain Shams University- Cairo-Egypt.

Abstract

Background: Quality of life is an important indicator for the assessment of individual's
health, decision-making, and passing judgment on the overall community health. Infertility in
most societies across the world is considered as a stain and shame, which leads to the
infertile couples suffering. Aim: It was to assess the quality of life among infertile couples
through utilizing the quality of life's domains. Design: A descriptive exploratory design was
utilized. Subjects: A convenient sample was obtained; all infertile couples who attended and
accepted to participate in study at the previously mentioned setting. Setting: The study was
conducted at the outpatient infertility clinics, at the Maternity Hospital-Ain Shams University.
Data Collection: 1. Arabic Structured Interviewing Questionnaire, developed by the researcher. 2.
A Ferti QOL, is the 2nd tool and the 1st internationally validated self-report questionnaire, it is
adopted from Jat Ky Boivin, et .al (2002), and adapted by the researcher. Results: Findings
showed highly statistically significant relations between levels of education of the infertile
couples and all the QOL sub-domains. Also, there were statistical significant relations between
levels of OOL of the infertile couples and their type of infertility. Meanwhile, a confirmed
positive statistically significant correlation was between infertility and QOL of the study sample.
Conclusions: Although infertility affects all the QOL domains of infertile couples, but it has a
major impact on their psychological and emotional aspects. Recommendations: Develop
different health awareness programs for infertile couple in different health settings in order to
enhance their knowledge and QOL. Also, health awareness is needed for health professionals to
include the psychological symptoms assessment of the infertile patients to their plan for more
efficient interventions.

Keywords