Perceived pregnancy stress and quality of life amongst Iranian women

Stress during pregnancy can result in critical negative outcomes on the mother, the fetus, the newborn, the child and even the adolescent. Quality of life has been recognized as a predictor of stress amongst pregnant women.

The first aim of this study was to investigate the role of quality of life in pregnancy stress rates. The second aim was to explore the relationship between maternal stress rate and the four domains of quality of life namely physical health, psychological status, social relationships and environmental conditions.

The present study was a quantitative cross-sectional research. It was conducted on 210 pregnant women in all trimesters of pregnancy who attended a hospital located in the west of Tehran for prenatal care between August and October 2012. Two questionnaires of The WHO QOL-BREF and Specific Pregnancy Stress were given to respondents to complete. The collected data was analyzed by SPSS version 22 using one-way ANOVA and Spearman correlation and Lisrel 8.8 using statistical path analyzing to describe the direct dependencies among variables.

In the current study, we hypothesized that quality of life may influence the perceived stress during pregnancy. The mean age of the women surveyed was estimated 27±4.8 years. The ultimate result showed that there is a significant relationship between quality of life and pregnancy stress level (Pvalue < 0.05, Beta=-0.16). In addition, we found a significant relationship, as well as direct correlation between the environmental domain in quality of life and the financial and environmental dimensions of specific pregnancy stress (Pvalue < 0.05, r=-0.365, r=-0.181).

Further investigations may be considered for extending the results to all pregnant women. Thus, further research across country would be required to validate the results of this study and to generalize the findings to wider population.