The impact of long COVID on health-related quality of life in patients 6 months after discharge with severe COVID-19.

This study investigates the relationship between long COVID and health-related quality of life (HRQOL) in patients discharged for 6 months. It included 192 patients with a history of severe COVID-19 and 192 patients with a history of non-severe COVID-19 patients that were selected through quota sampling methods from the Medical Care Monitoring Center (MCMC) of hospitals in Shiraz, Iran, in 2020. Phone-based interviews were conducted to collect data using the short form of the 12-item health-related quality of life (SF-12) questionnaire. Descriptive statistics, including mean (standard deviation) and frequency (percentage), were utilized. Statistical tests, such as the chi-squared test, independent samples t-test, Fisher's exact test, and multiple linear regression models were performed. Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS software version 24, with a significance level of 0.05. Among 384 patients, 79.95% were married, with a mean age of 53.95 years. The majority of patients in both groups were male (57.81% in the severe group and 51.04% in the non-severe group). Patients with severe COVID-19 had significantly lower quality of life scores compared to those with non-severe COVID-19 (p < 0.001, 34.45 [SD = 6.59] versus 39.64 [SD = 5.07]). Furthermore, multiple linear regression analysis indicated that severe COVID-19 inducts a significant negative effect on HRQOL in patients after adjustment of confounders (p < 0.001, B = - 4.84). Patients with severe COVID-19 had lower HRQOL compared to those with a non-severe level. It is necessary to consider implementing policies aimed at providing social, psychological, or medical support to improve the HRQOL of patients with a history of severe COVID-19.

Validation of the Family Stability Questionnaire in married couples: a confirmatory factor analysis.

BACKGROUND: Marital conflicts and divorce are among the most crucial problems of society. Therefore, it is important to maintain family stability at the optimal level in order to prevent divorce and its consequences in the family and community. OBJECTIVE: This study was conducted to design and validate the Family Stability Questionnaire (FSQ) in married couples. METHODS: This study was the second stage of a large study. The FSQ was constructed based on a qualitative research in our previous study in 2016. It was developed through interviews by family therapists, psychiatrists, and couples on 10 dimensions (areas) and was based on McMaster's Family Assessment Device (FAD). Then, in the present study, a confirmatory factor analysis was conducted on 270 males and females (135 couples) of Yazd City (Iran) from January to May 2017. The construct validity and reliability of the scales were examined using exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses (EFA and CFA) and Cronbach's alpha coefficient, respectively. Test-retest reliability was assessed with intra-class correlation coefficients (ICC) for the agreement between the individual items and domains. SPSS 21 and AMOS 21 were used for statistical analyses (p≤0.05). RESULTS: At first, the results of the CFA on 70 items of FSQ could not confirm (RMSEA=0.06, CFI=0.91, GFI=0.72), but FSQ with 56 questions indicated that it had sufficiently high validity and reliability to measure family stability (RMSEA=0.04, CFI=0.95, GFI=0.96) with an acceptable fit index. A positive significant correlation was observed between the FSQ and FAD (r=0.45, p<0.001) indicating that FSQ has convergent validity. The Cronbach's alpha and ICC of more than 0.7 in 10 domains of this tool indicated a good internal consistency among the items and their high relevance (0.90 and 0.84, respectively). CONCLUSION: FSQ, as a multi-dimensional questionnaire, is a useful and reliable instrument to assess family stability. It consists of ten factors, which were constructed for the first time in Iran. Given the proper features, this instrument can be utilized to carry out more research regarding family stability in Iranian populations.

Women's beliefs about infertility and sexual behaviors: A qualitative study.

BACKGROUND: Infertility is a reproductive health problem and its prevalence is increasing in developing countries. This problem has some significant effects on the sexual behaviors of infertile women, especially during infertility treatment periods. Discovering the existing beliefs in the field of sexual and reproductive health and also determining the misconceptions would define the educational needs for providing sexual health programs for infertile women. Women should be able to distinguish risky behaviors from healthy behaviors that falsely have been marked as infertility-related behaviors. This qualitative study was conducted to determine women's beliefs about infertility and sexual behaviors among Iranian infertile women. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The present study was a qualitative conventional content analysis study conducted on 15 infertile women and 8 key informants until reaching data saturation. Guba and Lincoln evaluative criteria were used for ensuring rigor of the study. RESULTS: Data analysis defined three classes of beliefs that directly or indirectly affected sexual behaviors in infertile women: 1) Cultural, religious, or ethnic beliefs, 2) believing in the effect of diet on infertility, and 3) effect of the type of intercourse on getting pregnant. CONCLUSIONS: Three themes of religious, cultural, and ethnic beliefs, believing in the effect of diet on infertility, and the effect of the type of intercourse were the most important factors indicating sexual behaviors among infertile women. It seems that cultural and social matters are the most effective factors on sexual behaviors of infertile Iranian women.