ABSTRACT
Health related quality of life [QoL] has now been considered as a main tool for outcome measurement in infertility. The present study aimed to determine the association be-tween general and specified QoL with different psychological aspects of self-esteem, social sup-port, sexual satisfaction, and marital satisfaction in a sample of Iranian infertile couples. This cross-sectional study was conducted on 385 infertile couples referred to the Fatemieh Hospital in Hamadan City, western Iran in 2012.To measure the self-esteem, the Iseng test was used. The social support scaling developed by Cassidy and Long was used for as-sessment of social support. The sexual satisfaction was also assessed by the Lindaberg ques-tionnaire. For assessing the general QoL state, the WHO-QoL-BREF and FertiQoL tools were employed. Self-esteem scores were lower in the couples with longer infertility duration. The social support mean score was lower in low income couples. Those with higher educational level, shorter infertility duration, and higher income were more satisfied from their marital relationships. Besides, we revealed that the previous failed efforts for treatment of infertility were adversely associated with the lower social support and sexual satisfaction. The higher educational level, higher monthly income, living in urban area, shorter duration of marriage and infertility, and male gender were associated with better QoL status in the most components. Associations between QoL and self-esteem, social support, sexual satisfaction, and marital satisfaction were significant [P<0.05]. The QoL status in infertile couples is directly associated with their self-esteem, social support, sexual satisfaction, and marital satisfaction.
ABSTRACT
Infertility has potentially inappropriate effects on quality of life in infertile couples. Various general and specific questionnaires have been structured for assessing different aspects of quality of life in infertile men, women, or couples. The present systematic review was designed to assess these questionnaires and also identify different factors affecting infertile couples based on the aforesaid questionnaires. The research strategy involved general and specific terms in relation to couples's infertility and their quality of life. A review was done for studies published from 1982 to 2012 that were indexed in Medline, ISI Web of Science and Scopus as well as abstract books on this subject. We also corresponded with the authors of the references in related studies for introducing more resources and references. In all reviewed studies, different aspects of the quality of life in couples were evaluated including sexual, psychological, social, communicational, environmental, occupational, medical, as well as economical ones. In total, after initial screening of all studies, 10 general and 2 specific questionnaires were retrieved. Although no meta-analysis was found in the review, infertility had a negative effect on quality of life in couples. This study revealed that some general questionnaires such as SF-36 and WHO-QOL were mostly used for assessing quality of life in infertile couples and some specific questionnaires such as FERTI-QoL and Fertility Problem Inventory were rarely used. Thus, it seems that the evaluation of quality of life in infertile couples needs valid instruments for measurement
Subject(s)
Humans , Male , Female , Infertility , Surveys and Questionnaires , Family CharacteristicsABSTRACT
Several studies have been conducted in Iran in order to investigate the prevalence of depression among infertile couples. However, there is a remarkable diversity among the results. This meta-analysis was conducted to estimate an overall prevalence rate of depression among infertile couples in Iran. International and national electronic databases were searched up to June 2011 including MEDLINE, Science Citation Index Expanded, Scopus, SID, MagIran, and IranMedex as well as conference databases. Furthermore, reference lists of articles were screened and the studies' authors were contacted for additional references. Cross-sectional studies addressing the prevalence of depression among infertile couples were included in this meta-analysis. We assessed 12 separate studies involving overall 2818 participants of which 1251 had depression. Overall prevalence rate of depression among infertile couples was 0.47 [95% CI: 0.40, 0.55]. The prevalence rate of depression was 0.44 [95% CI: 0.32, 0.56] during 2000 to 2005 and 0.50 [95% CI: 0.43, 0.57 during 2006 to 2011. The prevalence rate of depression was 0.46 [95% CI: 0.39, 0.53] among women and 0.47 [95% CI: 0.40, 0.54] among men. Not only the prevalence of depression in infertile couples was high but also had increasing growth in recent years. Furthermore, despite many studies conducted addressing the prevalence of depression in infertile couples, there is however a remarkable diversity between the results. Thus, one can hardly give a precise estimation of the prevalence rate of depression among infertile couples in Iran now