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

ABSTRACT

Background

It has been demonstrated that infertility can affect quality of life (QoL) in infertile couples. Resilience is considered a protective factor against the distress caused by infertility and the quality of life status. There is a new definition for Fertility Quality of Life that evaluates particularly the impact of infertility on various aspects of life.

Material and methods

In this couple-based study, the main objective was investigating the quality of life based on the gender and resilience of infertile couples. Measurement tools were three questionnaires including a demographic one, a quality of life of infertile couples questionnaire and the Connor–Davidson Resilience Scale. Data analysis was done through paired t-test and linear multiple regressions test.

Results

Overall the difference of mean score for QoL is statistically significant (P > 0.001) between men and women (69.48% vs 58.87%), which means that QoL status was positive in men and neutral in women. In addition, the mean score of male resilience was more than female resilience (P = 0.009). The results showed there was a significant and positive correlation between the QoL status and resilience score (P = 0.008, r = 0.13) (P < 0.1), and resilience (β = 0.04 and P = 0.04) had a significant protective effect on the quality of life.

Conclusion

Low resilience status in infertile couples is better to be considered as a risk factor compromising the quality of life and infertility consolers should keep in mind this issue and provide a comprehensive and holistic approach for a better outcome of infertility treatment.

Abbreviations

QoLICQ: Quality of Life in Infertile Couple Questionnaire; CD-RISC: Connor–Davidson Resilience Scale; IVF: in vitro fertilisation; ART: assisted reproductive technique; PTSD: posttraumatic stress disorder; IUI: intrauterine insemination; ICSI: intracytoplasmic sperm injection.

KEYWORDS:

• Quality of life
• infertility
• resilience

Acknowledgments

We express our gratitude to Yazd Research and Clinical Center for Infertility, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences and its staff who assisted us in collecting data, especially Jamileh Khademi. We also appreciate all those who participated in conducting the present research.

Authors’ contributions

Mahboubeh Vatanparast: Project development, manuscript writing.

Zahra Royani: Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

Farideh Yaghmaie: preparing and validation of the questionnaire.

Morteza Anvari: Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content.

Seyed Mojtaba Yassini Ardekani: Psychological advisor.

Athareh Kalantari: Data gathering, analyzing and interpreting the data.

Consent for publication

• We assured the particiants that the information was completely confidential and that each questionnaire is anonymous and data presented with a code.

Disclosure statement

There is no any conflicts of interest to be declared.

Declarations

Ethics approval and consent to participate

• This study was approved by the Research Ethics Committee of the Yazd Reproductive Sciences Institute, which follows the Helsinki Declaration of 1975(app no. IR.SSU.RSI.REC.1394.23).

• We asked a question in the our questionnaire based on which the participants certified that they were satisfied to participate in the study voluntarily.

Data availability statement

The data sets used and analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request. Data are available to send to the journal whenever necessary.

Additional information

Funding

No funding.