Health related quality of life and influencing factors of pregnant women during the third trimester

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Objective To explore the condition of health related quality of life (HRQoL) and its influencing factors of pregnant women during the third trimester. Methods We enrolled 2 017 pregnant women during the third trimester at antenatal clinics of West China Second University Hospital, Sichuan University from October 2013 to February 2014. The Chinese Version of Short Form 36 Health Survey (SF-36) was used to assess the HRQoL. Fourteen possible influencing factors including age, nationality and educational background etc. were analyzed by univariate analysis. Multiple linear regression was conducted to analyze the influencing factors of physical component summary (PCS) score and the mental component summary (MCS) score of SF-36. Results ①The scores of eight domains of SF-36 were (63.0±16.6) score of physical function (PF), (51.0±24.6) score of role physical (RP), (69.0±18.1) score of bodily pain (BP), (73.5±17.2) score of general health (GH), (60.9±15.0) score of vitality (VT), (75.4±17.5) score of social function (SF), (72.8±26.4) score of role emotion (RE), and (78.2±12.6) score of mental health (MH), respectively. ②Univariate analysis showed that there were significant differences of PCS scores of four domains in SF-36 among pregnant women in terms of age, body mass index (BMI), living condition and marital relationship (P<0.05). There were significant differences of MCS scores of four domains in SF-36 among pregnant women in terms of age, educational background, current working status, annual family income per capita, living condition, marital relationship, relationship between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law, and paternal smoking during pregnancy (P<0.05). ③The multiple linear regression results showed that the age, living condition and marital relationship were associated with the PCS scores of pregnant women during the third trimester in a sequence of decreasing impact. Older age, less satisfaction with living condition and marital relationship were associated with a lower PCS score (P<0.05). Relationship between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law, marital relationship, living condition, age and educational background were associated with the MCS scores in a sequence of decreasing impact. Older age and better educational background were associated with a higher MCS score, while less satisfaction with relationship between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law, marital relationship and living condition were associated with a lower MCS score(P<0.05). Conclusions Multiple factors are correlated with the HRQoL at the third trimester of pregnancy. Strategies for improving the HRQoL of pregnant women might need to target these factors, such as improving educational background, maintain good relationships with husband and mother-in-law, and so on. Key words: Quality of life; Surveys and questionnaires; Pregnancy trimester, third; Pregnant women