The impact of severe preeclampsia on maternal quality of life

Abstract

Preeclampsia (PE) is a serious life event that can change women's psychological profile. The aim of this study was to evaluate the physical and mental health-related quality of life (HR-QoL) in women after PE and the impact of contributing factors. Ninety-five women who had suffered from PE answered the Short-Form-12 Health Survey on general state of health. Comparison was made with the reference values and among the study cohorts, namely mild (14.7%), severe (74.7%) and superimposed PE (10.5%). Medical parameters were evaluated as additional factors, and age served as covariate. Quality of mental life was significantly worse in all patients (p<0.01), especially in those after severe PE (p<0.01) compared to the reference range. These women demonstrated significantly worse results than those affected by the mild form (p=0.03). Women who had had superimposed PE were neither physically nor mentally impaired compared to the standard population values (p=0.94 and p=0.90, respectively). After controlling for medical parameters and age, differences remained statistically significant. Multiparous women scored significantly worse on the mental scale than primiparous (p=0.02), and pregnant women scored significantly worse than non-pregnant women on the physical level (p=0.04). This study shows that women who have suffered from severe PE are substantially reduced in their mental quality of life. An extensive medical care including HR-QoL parameters might improve pregnancy outcome.