Impact of infertility-related psychological stress on the quality of life of azoospermia patients / 中华男科学杂志

ABSTRACT

<p><b>Objective</b>To investigate the impact of infertility-related psychological stress (IRPS) on the quality of life (QOL) of azoospermia patients and the correlation between IRPS and QOL.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Using the Fertility Problem Inventory and Fertility-Related QOL (FertiQOL) questionnaire, we carried out a cross-sectional study among 503 azoospermia patients treated in our center from January to July 2017, all subjected to testicular biopsy for identification of the causes. We analyzed the IRPS and QOL of the patients and explored their correlation.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The total score of the azoospermia patients for IRPS was 153.60 ± 27.21 and that for QOL was 64.22 ± 14.68. Multivariate linear regression analysis showed that the main factors influencing the patients' QOL included IRPS ( β = －0.298, P< 0.05), education ( β = －0.093, P< 0.05), and age ( β = 0.099, P< 0.05). Pearson correlation analysis revealed a negative correlation of the total QOL score with all the factors for IRPS (P <0.01).</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>IRPS is an important factor affecting azoospermia patients' QOL, the higher the IRPS, the worse the QOL. Therefore, sufficient attention and effective intervention measures are needed for the improvement of their QOL.</p>