Quality of Life of Pregnant Women in Bandar Abbas

Introduction: Many biological, chemical, physiological, and anatomical changes occur during pregnancy in women’s body. These changes make them vulnerable both physically and mentally. The present study examined the quality of life of pregnant women and factors associated with it. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was performed on 400 pregnant women referred to health centers and clinics of Obstetricians and Gynecologists in 2012 in the city of Bandar Abbas. The Short Form Health Survey (SF-36) was used to collect the data, which were analyzed with SPSS 16. Results: The mean score for quality of life in pregnant women was 58.2±14.89. Based on the results, among the 8 dimensions of quality of life, mental health and social functioning had the highest mean scores of 71.11 and 69.28 and physical problems and psychological problems had the lowest scores of 32.49 and 48.78, respectively. There was significant differences in terms of mean score of quality of life between different age groups (pvalue=0.032), different degrees of satisfaction with the economic situation (pvalue<0.0001), as well as varying degrees of satisfaction with the cooperation and participation of spouse in household chores (pvalue=0.002), while no statistical significance was observed in other cases. Conclusion: Our data suggest that the quality of life of pregnant women is low due to the influence of certain factors on the dimensions of quality of life. Therefore, quality of life during pregnancy can be promoted by considering these variables and planning to reduce their impact.