Lifestyle Among Fertile and Infertile Women: A Case-Control Study in the West of Iran

Abstract

Background: In the studies conducted in Iran, the determining role of lifestyle as a multifactorial concept of infertility in infertile Iranian women has rarely been investigated. Objective: to compare the lifestyles of fertile and infertile women in Iran. Method: This case-control study was conducted on 400 women in 2022. The control group includes women aged 18-45 years, with no history of infertility and who had at least one child. The case group includes women whose primary infertility has been diagnosed and confirmed by a gynecologist and who were referred to the infertility ward in the west of Iran for treatment. The Miller-smith lifestyle assessment inventory was used in this study. We applied a significance level of 0.05 using the Stata ver. 14. Results: In multivariable analysis after adjusting for age, BMI, women's education, husband's education, women's Job, age at menarche, and menstrual cycle, the infertile women had higher scores on the Miller-Smith lifestyle questionnaire than fertile women [linear regression coefficient=21.21; 95% confidence interval: 20.56 to 21.86; p<0.001]. Conclusion: The situations of lifestyle components such as time of rest, attending club and social activities, physical activity, recreation, having close friends, and religious beliefs were better in fertile women, as compared to infertile women.