Quality of life of pregnant women who decide to terminate their pregnancy.

Abstract

Objective : To study the quality of life (QOL) and related factors of pregnant women who decided to terminate their pregnancy.

Design : Cross-sectional descriptive study.

Setting : A private clinic in Bangkok.

Materials and Methods : One hundred and forty-one women who decided to terminate their pregnancy took part. Demographic data were collected using self-complete questionnaire. The WHOQOL- BREF-THAI questionnaire was used to determine QOL.

Result : The QOL score of women who terminated pregnancy was quite low in every dimension especially in mental health. Using reference value; about one-fifth had poor QOL-mental health and one-fourth had poor QOL- environmental domain. Factors related to overall QOL were income (B = 2.1, p =.03), later times of pregnancy (B = 2.6, p <.01), and living alone or with friends (B = 6.1, p = .01). Additionally, higher income increased the likelihood of an increased QOL-environmental domain score (B = 0.7, p = .03) while living alone or with friends increased that of mental health score (B = 2.5, p<.01) and also social score (B = 0.8, p = .01). Likewise, later times of pregnancy increased the likelihood of an increased QOLmental health score (B = 1.1, p <.01) and that of environmental score (B = 0.6, p = .07).

Conclusion : The overall QOL score of women who terminated pregnancy was low. People they live with; income and times of pregnancy were significantly associated with the level of QOL. These findings may help related healthcare organizations to the quality of women who decide to terminate their pregnancy to develop strategies in improving QOL of those in high- risk groups.