Relationships between health care behaviors, anxiety, social support and quality of life among pregnant women with pregnancy induced hypertension

Abstract

Background: Pregnancy induced hypertension is a complication that has serious consequences in pregnant women and their fetus. It is a crisis that can affect the quality of life of pregnant women. Research on relationships between healthcare behaviors, anxiety, social support and quality of life in pregnant women with pregnancy induced hypertension will help to plan the improvement of the quality of life in women with pregnancy induced hypertension.

Objectives: To study the quality of life and factors related to quality of life of pregnant women with pregnancy induced hypertension.

Methods: This study was cross sectional research design. A total of 92 pregnant subjects with pregnancy induced hypertension were registered at the Antenatal Clinic, The Thai Red Cross Society. A convenience sampling was used to recruit the subject. Data were collected between March to May 2018. Questionnaires used to collect the data consist of demographic data, 12 Short Form Health Survey version 2 (SF-12 v.2), health care behaviors of pregnant women with hypertension, state anxiety inventory and multidimensional scale of perceived social support. Reliability were 0.84, 0.71, 0.91 and 0.86 respectively.

Results: The results showed that the mean score of life quality was 64.10 (SD = 15.42) which is a good level. As for correlation analysis, anxiety was negatively related to the quality of life. (r = -0.545, P < 0.01). However, health care behaviors and social support were not correlated with the quality of life of pregnant women with pregnancy induced hypertension. (r = 0.140, - 0.043, P < 0.05).

Conclusions: The findings indicated that anxiety was negatively related to the quality of life. Therefore, this study suggested that nurse should develop a nursing intervention to reduce anxiety in order to promote quality of life in pregnant women with pregnancy induced hypertension.