Assessment Scales, Associated Factors and the Quality of Life Score in Pregnant Women in Iran

Women experience physical, chemical, endocrine gland and organ changes during pregnancy that limit their activities and reduce their quality of life. The present study was conducted to investigate the quality of life in pregnant women in Iran, the assessment scales used to measure this variable and the factors associated with it.

The present study searched databases including Science Direct, PubMed, Scopus, SID, Iranmedex, Mahiran, IranDoc and Google Scholar using keywords such as pregnant women, Iran, quality of life, pregnancy and prenatal and their Persian equivalents to find relevant articles conducted in Iran and ultimately found 20 articles to review without any regard for their time, language and publication site.

Studies conducted in Iran to assess the quality of life in pregnant women have used four tools, including the SF-36, the WHOQOL-BRIEF, the SF-12 and the Nausea and Vomiting of Pregnancy-Specific Health-Related Quality of Life Questionnaire. The mean quality of life score obtained using these different tools varied from 61.18±13.21 to 66.48±15.57. Social support, socioeconomic status, the pregnancy being wanted, satisfaction with life and sexual function were related directly to the quality of life, while prenatal mental disorders, the severity of pregnancy nausea and vomiting and sleep disorders were related inversely to it.

Given the lack of a specific tool designed to assess the quality of life in pregnant women, general tools were used for its assessment. Further studies are thus required to design a specific localized tool and to also assess the relationship between the quality of life and its associated factors.