6^th World Nursing and Healthcare Conference

Biography

Biography: Shwu-Ru Liou

Abstract

Prevalence of depression of infertile women varied among reports. Studies pointed out that women who seek infertility treatment had poorer mental health and more emotional problems related to role functioning. Infertile women who seek for infertility treatment experience psychological distress easily. Understanding depression might help improve quality of life of infertile women. This preliminary analysis was part of a larger study that purposed to establish a website to moderate negative emotions and stress of infertile women. The purpose of this report was to explore infertile women’s depressive symptoms and their related factors. The study was a cross-sectional design. Eight-nine infertile women completed a set of questionnaires including the Center for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression (CESD), Fertility Problem Inventory, State-Trait Anxiety Inventory. Results showed that the mean CESD score of the participants was not high (M=13.63, SD=9.27); however, 40.4% of them experienced depressive symptoms. Except for menstrual regularity, none of surveyed demographic variables including maternal age, length since infertility was diagnosed, living with in-laws, educational level, employment, income, having child(ren), BMI, menstrual amount, and infertility treatment, were related to CESD. Depression was however related to infertility stress, state anxiety and trait anxiety (r ranged .44-.69). In addition, menstrual regularity and trait anxiety had predictive relationship with depression (R2=54.6%). The study found that infertile women regardless of their personal characteristics had high potential for experiencing depression. While screening for depression, stress and anxiety need also to be screened. Those who felt anxious easily need to be counseled to decrease the possibility of depression.