Resilience as the predictor of quality of life in the infertile couple as the most neglected and silent minorities

Background: There is a new definition for Fertility Quality of Life (FertiQOL) that evaluates, in particular, the impact of infertility on various aspects of life. The inability to have children is experienced by couples as a heavy distress and often a heartbreaking situation. It is claimed that infertility plays a major role in the infertile population such as lower quality of life, mental health problems, emotional distress and marital and sexual dissatisfaction.Objective: In addition, distress levels can influence the outcome of fertility treatment.Materials and Methods: 202 infertile couples completed a questionnaire while waiting for their medical treatments. The questionnaire had three parts: Demographic characteristics, Quality of life of infertile couples (Ferti QOL), Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC). The analysis was done via SPSS 20. Descriptive statistics were used for describing socio-demographic and clinical variables and independent sample t-test and χ2 tests were used for comparing the means. Linear multiple regressions were conducted to examine whether resilience score had predictive value for men-women s QOL. Significant correlation coefficient indicate a significant relationship between the independent variables (resilience) and QOL scores for each domain. The p<0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: Overall mean score for QOL is higher in men compared to women (p> 0.001), this score for men interpreted as positive (69.48% of total score) and neutral in women (58.87%). men presented a higher mean score in the six QOL domains scores, while women were superior only in physical domain and all differences were significant. The mean score of males’ resilience is more than the females too (p=0.009). Resilience (p=0.04 and p=0.04) had significant prognostic coefficients for quality of life. In compare QOL score in terms of education, causes of infertility, and duration of infertility, the results was significantly different only in the education level.Conclusion: The resilience for men and women can be regarded as a significant predictor for the most aspect of the QOL. Infertile couple with low resilience placed them as a risk group. Consultants must be considered in mind, the negative impact of the ART treatment on QOL of infertile men and women and provide a family-centered service in holistic approach.

کلیدواژه ها:

Quality of life ، Infertility ، Resilience