Quality of Life Among Fertile and Infertile Women

Background: Quality of life is an important indicator for the assessment of individual health, decision-making, and passing judgment on the overall health of the community. Objectives: This study aimed at comparing the quality of life among fertile and infertile women and the factors affecting it. Materials and Methods: In this cross-sectional study, the quality of life of 511 infertile women and 1017 fertile women was assessed using the Persian Version of SF36 quality of life questionnaire in 2013. To examine the relationship between demographic variables and quality of life, chi-square test and analysis of variance were used. The relationship between the factors affecting the quality of life was evaluated using multiple regressions. Results: Almost 10.1% of the participants reported low and very low quality of life, 38.6% reported average, and 51.3% reported good or very good quality of life. No significant difference was observed in the level of quality of life in fertile and infertile women (P = 0.8). The subscale mean scores of physical functioning and physical role limitation were significantly lower, and the mean scores of mental health and general health were higher in the fertile women than in the infertile. Conclusions: The results of the present study revealed that infertile women had significantly lower mean scores in the subscales of mental health and general health than the fertile women.