Impact of Functional Status on the Quality of Life of Pregnant Women with Lumbopelvic Pain

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate the functional status of pregnant women with lumbopelvic pain (LPP) and to determine its effect on their health-related quality of life with respect to physical, social, and emotional functions. Methods: A total of 127 pregnant women at 8-39 gestational weeks who were admitted to our outpatient pregnancy clinic were included in the study. Of these patients, 83 pregnant women who reported LPP for at least 2 weeks formed the LPP group and the remaining 44 pregnant women formed the control group. The Oswestry Disability Index (ODI) was used for assessing functional status, and the Nottingham Health Profile (NHP) was used for assessing the health-related quality of life. The severity of pain was measured using a visual analog scale (VAS pain). Results: The scores of the LPP group were significantly higher than those of the control group in ODI and in the pain, physical mobility, and energy subscales of NHP (p<0.001). The scores of ODI correlated with those of VAS pain and those of pain, physical mobility, energy, sleep, social isolation, and emotional reaction subgroups of NHP (p<0.01, r=0.67, 0.54, 0.46, 0.49, 0.41, 0.29, and 0.38, respectively). The highest correlation was between ODI and VAS pain (r=0.67). Conclusion: LPP is common in pregnant women and causes functional limitation and decreased health-related quality of life. Identifying pregnancyrelated LPP and its treatment will result in an increase in the quality of life.