Association Between Morning Sickness and Quality of Life Among Pregnant Females

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Nausea and vomiting during pregnancy (NVP) is very common and may have great impact on quality of life of women. Nausea and vomiting causes negative effect on physical and mental health of women Objective: To find the association between morning sickness and nausea and vomiting in pregnant women Methods: A Cross Sectional study performed at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital Lahore for period of 4 months. 100 pregnant females were selected by non-probability sampling technique. The information on nausea and vomiting was measured by using questionnaire at enrollment, as well as potential confounders (i.e., maternal/gestational age, educational level, parity, body mass index, chronic/infectious conditions, sleep quality, headache, anxiety, and depression) WHOQOL scale was used to assess the quality of life of patients Results: Out of 100 pregnant females, 45 females were in their 1st trimester, 37 females were in their 2nd trimester and 18 were in their 3rd trimester of pregnancy. The mean age of patients was 1.85±0.989. 76 were suffering from morning sickness at some point. Low scores were found for physical health domain, psychological domain and environmental domain of WHOQOL among pregnant females. There was a strong association between fatigue due to nausea and physical health domain and psychological health domain of WHOQOL. There was also a strong association between depression and disturbed activities due to nausea and vomiting. There was no significant association found in socio-economic status and nausea and vomiting Conclusions: Nausea and vomiting is a physically morbid disease, affecting most pregnancies. Nausea and vomiting have a significant detrimental impact on quality of life, especially physical quality of life. It also affects psychological health of a person causing depression. Despite this, we found low treatment, even in those with moderate/severe symptoms. Women should be encouraged to seek assistance for morning sickness and hyperemesis gravidarum from the health practitioner.