The correlation among stress, coping and health-related quality of life in women undergoing treatment of assisted reproductive technologies

• Main Authors: Cheng-Fang Xiao, 蕭丞芳
• Other Authors: Chung-Fu Lan
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2007
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/44447527414175997446

碩士 === 國立陽明大學 === 衛生福利研究所 === 95 === While childbearing may be one of the essential meanings in most marriages, according to a rough estimation 10% to 15% of married couples have to face the problem of infertility. They will not only miss the opportunity to become a parent, but also under a whole lot of stress cause by traditional society value of sustaining the family name. The health-related quality of life issues for infertile patients thus require paying more attention. Since females are still the main target for treating infertility currently, they suffer most the hardship during the process of treatment, and the depression or helpless feeling that may be brought to them after. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to explore the current status and correlation of stress, coping-strategies and health-related quality of life for the women undergoing infertility treatment, further to support and promote in quality of life related caring or policies for infertile women. This is a descriptive and correlational research, aiming at women undergoing infertility treatment with the purposive sampling taken place in a Taipei teaching hospital. Structural questionnaires including stress scale, coping-strategies scale, SF-36 scale and demographic data were used as the research measurement, result in a total of 135 questionnaires were collected and analyzed with the application of descriptive statistic, t-test, analysis of variance (ANOVA), Pearson product-moment correlation and multiple-regression analysis. The major finding of this study were as following: 1.The highest stress level for women undergoing infertility treatment belongs to the “Feeling of Uncertainty” aspect, “Limited Role Function” coming after, and the most frequently used coping-strategies aspect is “Passive Avoiding”, “Meaning Based” next and “Active Avoiding” the least. The aspect of “Physical Function” and “Body Pain” are both well in health-related quality of life, and “Vitality” and “Mental Health” fall behind, and comparing this score to the normal standard is much lower. 2.The overall stress for women undergoing infertility treatment could be affected by variables such as “Family Incomes”, “Expected Number of Children”, “ Extra Health-expense on Childbearing” and “Using Infertility Treatment Frequency”. “ The Maximum Years Welling to Try” would influence the decision of adopting the coping-strategies. The overall physical health-related quality of life could be determined by “Working Status”, and “Education Level” will differentiate the mental health aspect. 3.The overall stress and coping-strategies have a prominent positive correlation for women undergoing infertility treatment, but the overall stress and health in both physical and mental have a prominent negative correlation. However the overall coping-strategies and physical health have least correlation, and show a negative correlation with the overall mental health aspect. On the overall physical and mental health aspect, stress and coping-strategies have no inter-relationship. The overall health for women undergoing infertility treatment could mainly predicted by the variable of “Self-image Scale ” . From the result, this study submits the following suggestions: 1.To have an equal medical opportunity, the government should subsidize for the infertility treatment. 2.To reinforce advocating on infertility and provide such information on the internet. 3.To provide or transfer infertile patients for counseling. 4.To establish supportive groups or non-profit organizations. Keywords: Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ART), Infertility, Stress, Coping-strategies, Health-related quality of life, SF-36