Postpartum health-related quality of life and associated perinatal factors among women in North-East Romania

Abstract

ROMANIA (Abstract): The aim of this cross-sectional study was conducted to assess the health-related quality of life and its af-fecting factors among women from North-East Romania at six weeks postpartum. Material and methods: The study was conducted in a tertiary care hospital, at the “Cuza-Vodă” University Hospital of Obstetrics and Gynecology in Iași (Romania), from May to December 2021. The validated short-form (SF-36) questionnaire was used to assess health-related quality of life (HRQoL) of 321 women at six weeks postpartum. Results: The mean Physical Component Summary and Mental Component Summary scores, two summary measures that aggregate the eight most important domains of health status, were both reported higher than 50% (59.05 ± 19.48, 55.08 ± 25.17, respectively). Highest median scores were reported in body pain (69.25 ± 28.87) and physical functioning domains (65.42 ± 14.78). Lowest median scores were reported in vitality (44.57± 20.20) and general health perceptions (48.73 ± 25.99). Factors associated with higher overall HRQoL were maternal age under 30 and multiparity. Number of days of peripartum hospitalization was inversely proportional to all scales of the SF-36 questionnaire. Conclusions: In this study, we highlight the need for additional studies on ways to predict the onset of labor, in order to shorten the period of peripartum hospitalization of pregnant women in North-East Romania, and implicitly to improve their quality of life . rRNA analysis which detects not only live and active microbes but also dead and dormant microbes. 51 adult patients (age>20) were included in this study with mean age of 45, between 2012 and 2017 and followed up through 2020; patients who had taken antibiotics within 3 months before biopsies and with primary sclerosis cholangitis were not enrolled in this study; no patients enrolled developed colorectal cancer during the follow-up period. Colon mucosal bi-opsy were obtained at enrollment and 16S rRNA sequencing was performed. 24 patients were in remission of which 7 developed relapses during follow-up and 27 in active UC which were classified into response group (n=6), refractory group (n=13) and non-response group (n=8) according to their treatment response in 6 months. Results : no difference in the gut microbiota composition between rectum and colon; the proportion of Bacteroides de-creased as the severity of mucosal inflammation increased; unexpectedly Bacteroides was significantly lower in the non-relapse group than in the relapse group; secondly, the proportion of Enterobacteriaceae increased as the mucosal inflammation increased; in the active period a high proportion of Enterobacteriaceae was resistance to any treatments; the proportion of Clostridiales was higher in the non-relapse group whereas Prevotella was higher in the response group. In conclusion, gut microbiota composition can predict treatments strategies and clinical course of UC in terms of the relapse rate during the remission period and intrac-tability during the active phase. (Nishihara Y, Ogino Tanaka M, et al. Mucosa-associated gut microbiota reflects clinical course of ulcerative colitis.