Fear of abortion and emotional divorce in women with minor thalassemia: a population-based study in Yazd, Iran

Abstract

Background: Thalassemia is the most common genetic disorder in humans that can be controlled and treated by, premarital screening, prenatal diagnosis and abortion. Aortion can be a critical issue for many families based on the cultural and religious backgrounds and have different consequences for couples, such as emotional divorce. Therefore, the present study aimed to investigate the association between fear of abortion and emotional divorce in women with minor thalassemia in Yazd City, Iran. Materials and methods: This retrospective study was conducted on 61 women with minor thalassemia (case group) and 100 healthy women (control group), who referred to health centers in Yazd. The census sampling was applied to select the case group and multistage (cluster andsimple) random sampling was adopted to select the control group. Data were collected using Gutman Emotional Divorce Questionnaire and a researcher made scale for measuring fear of Abortion. Data were analyzed by SPSS using descriptive statistics and chi-square, independent t-test, Pearson correlation, and linear regression. Results: The mean scores of emotional divorce (6.62 vs. 4.26) and fear of abortion (25.85 vs. 17.4) were higher in the case than control group (P ˂ 0.01). There was a positive and significant correlation between fear of abortion and emotional divorce in the case (P ˂ 0.05, r = 0.275) and control (P ˂ 0.05, r = 0.570) groups. Fear of abortion in the case group predicted 25% of the variance in emotional divorce. Conclusion: Given the high level of fear of abortion in women with minor thalassemia and its effect on increasing the emotional divorce, designing and implementing psychological interventions with ongoing follow-up are recommended for thalassemia carrier couples.