Quality of life in pregnant women: Association with demographic, socioeconomic, obstetric, and health conditions factors

Abstract

Introduction. During pregnancy, there are changes that influence a woman’s quality of life. Objective. To analyze the quality of life and its association with demographic, socioeconomic, obstetric, and health conditions in pregnant women. Method. Quality of life was measured using the WHOQOL-BREF, and to evaluate the association between quality of life domains and exposure variables (demographics, socioeconomic, obstetrics, and health conditions) the inflated beta regression was used. Results. In the physical domain, pregnant women had lower scores: with higher parity (OR = .71; 95% CI = [.59, .84]), third pregnancy trimester (OR = .74; 95% CI [.61, .89]), reported common symptom (OR = .80; 95% CI = [.67, .95]), or morbidity (OR = .67; 95% CI [.57, .79]). In the psychological domain, women with planned pregnancy had higher scores (OR = 1.20; 95% CI= [1.04, 1.37]), while those who reported common symptoms (OR = .75; 95% CI = [.63, .89]), or morbidity (OR = .82; 95% CI = [.70, .95]) had the worst scores. Higher income was associated with higher scores in the social relationships domain (OR = 1.22; 95% CI = [1.03, 1.45]). Women in their second pregnancy had lower scores in the environment domain (OR = .84; 95% CI = [.72, .98]), while those with intermediate income had higher scores (OR = 1.23; 95% CI = [1.05, 1.43]). Discussion and conclusion. Lower quality of life scores were associated with obstetrics and health conditions variables, while higher scores were related with demographics and socioeconomics variables. The multidimensionality of factors associated with the domains of quality of life during pregnancy is also highlighted, which stresses the importance of intersectoral actions for women in social vulnerability.