Prenatal fatigue and quality of life of pregnant women over 26 weeks of gestation

View File(s)
Thumbnail
Slides.pdf
PDF (180.2Kb)
Author Information
  • Details
  • Ching-Yu Cheng, PhD, RN; Shwu-Ru Liou, PhD, RN; Panchalli Wang, MD

Item Information
Item Link - Use this link for citations and online mentions.
http://hdl.handle.net/10755/201589
Abstract

Pregnant women have high rate of experiencing fatigue, which may impact women's quality of life (QoL). The purposes of his study were to examine relationship between fatigue and QoL (general, physical, mental, and social health) of women in the third trimester. The study was a cross-sectional design with snowball sampling. Data from 128 pregnant women without pregnancy-related physical/mental complications in Taiwan were analyzed. They were at 32.66 (SD=3.76) gestational weeks and were 40.41 (SD=4.30) years old. About half of them were primiparous (55%) and employed (57%); had an education higher than high school (59%) and planned for the pregnancy (51%). The 16-item Multidimensional Assessment of Fatigue (MAFS, scores 1-50, high score indicates higher level of fatigue) and the 17-item Duke Health Profile (DHP, scores 0-100 on each dimension of health, higher score indicates healthier) were used. Cronbach's alphas for the MAFS and DHP were .96 and .80, respectively. Descriptive statistics, ANOVA, Pearson correlation, and regression were used. Participants did not have very high score on the MAFS (M=20.56) and physical (M=52.97), mental (M=64.61), social (M=63.71), and general (M=60.43) health of the DHP. Fatigue was correlated with physical (r=-.68), mental (r=-.53), social (r=-.45), and general (r=-.70) health. Fatigue could explain 47% of the variance of physical, 28% of mental, 20% of social, and 49% of general health. Fatigue and dimensions of QoL did not differ by gestational groups (<32, 32-36, and >36 weeks), educational level (college or higher and lower than college), or happy about pregnancy (happy, unhappy, and uncertain). Employed pregnant women had better mental (t=2.14, p=0.04) and social (t=2.81, p=0.01) health than unemployed women. Strategies to manage fatigue such as time management, may improve maternal QoL. Helping pregnant women to be employed may increase their QoL. Longitudinal study can help to understand patterns of fatigue and QoL during pregnancy.

Funder(s)
Sigma Foundation for Nursing
Description

41st Biennial Convention - 29 October-2 November 2011. Theme: People and Knowledge: Connecting for Global Health. Held at the Gaylord Texan Resort & Convention Center.

Repository Posting Date
2012-01-11T10:41:50Z
Notes

Items submitted to a conference/event were evaluated/peer-reviewed at the time of abstract submission to the event. No other peer-review was provided prior to submission to the Henderson Repository, unless otherwise noted.

Type Information
TypePresentation
AcquisitionProxy-submission
Review TypeAbstract Review Only: Reviewed by Event Host
FormatText-based Document
Category Information
Evidence LevelN/A
Research ApproachN/A
KeywordsFatigue;
Pregnant Women;
Quality of Life
Conference Information
Name41st Biennial Convention: People and Knowledge: Connecting for Global Health
HostSigma Theta Tau International
LocationGrapevine, Texas USA
Date2011
Rights Holder

All rights reserved by the author(s) and/or publisher(s) listed in this item record unless relinquished in whole or part by a rights notation or a Creative Commons License present in this item record.

All permission requests should be directed accordingly and not to the Sigma Repository.

All submitting authors or publishers have affirmed that when using material in their work where they do not own copyright, they have obtained permission of the copyright holder prior to submission and the rights holder has been acknowledged as necessary.

Contact Us | Send Feedback
Powered by KnowledgeArc