Coping Strategies and Quality of Life among Infertile Women in Damanhour City

Abstract

Abstract: Infertility and its related problems negatively affect the quality of life. Coping with infertility is important in order to maintain and/or improve the patient's quality of life. Objective: to assess coping strategies and quality of life among infertile women. Setting: The study was carried out in the gynecologic outpatient clinic and inpatient department affiliated to National Medical Institution in Damanhour, El-Beheira Governorate. Subjects: It comprised a convenient sample of 200 women. Tools: Three tools were utilized for data collection; a structured interview schedule, the COMPI Coping Strategy Scales and Fertility Quality of Life Questionnaire (FertiQoL). Results: The study revealed that passive-avoidance coping was highly used by 96.5% of infertile women. Meaning-based coping was highly used by 47.5% of them. Active-confronting coping was highly used by 37% of infertile women. While active-avoidance coping was highly used by only 15% of them. The infertile women had lower total mean score of quality of life 59.375±15.790. Total quality of life was found to be positively significantly correlated with active-confronting coping r=0.205 (0.004), passive-avoidance coping r=0.317 (0.000), and meaning-based coping r=0.598 (0.000), while it was found to be negatively significantly correlated with active-avoidance coping r= -0.435 (0.000). Conclusion: the infertile women used passive avoidance coping more frequently than other forms of coping strategies. Moreover, the infertile women obtained lower total mean score of quality of life. In addition, total quality of life was significantly correlated with all the coping strategies. Recommendations: Educational programs should be carried out for nurses to provide them with essential information regarding infertility coping strategies to counseling the infertile women