Identifying associated factors in relation to health-related quality of life among postpartum women in Jimma town: A community-based cross-sectional study.

Background: The quality of life (QoL) of women during the postpartum period is affected by their living circumstances, reproductive history, exposure to and use of antenatal care, etc. The quality of life (QoL) issues associated to postpartum health among Ethiopian women have not been adequately examined in studies. Therefore, this study identified associated factors in relation to the health-related quality of life (QOL) among postpartum women in Jimma Town, Ethiopia.
Methods: A structured face-to-face interview and a self-administered questionnaire were utilized in a community-based cross-sectional study to obtain data from 397 postpartum women from May 15 to June 14, 2022, using a multistage sampling strategy. The data analysis utilized several descriptive statistics. Multiple logistic models were run on factors that were significant at the 25 % level in univariate analysis. Adjusted odds ratios and 95 % confidence intervals were computed to identify associated factors.
Results: The majority (51.2 %) of postpartum women had a low health-related quality of life, with a mean score of 50.58. Women poor health-related quality of life (QoL) was associated with age (AOR = 10.09; CI: 3.45-29.51), non-formal education of partners (AOR = 3.67; CI: 1.25-10.72), multiparousness (AOR = 2.21; CI: 1.14-4.29), unplanned pregnancy (AOR = 7.36; CI: 1.98-27.37), giving birth to a dead baby (AOR = 3.15; CI: 1.54-6.42), and not admitted to the hospital while pregnant (AOR = 5.50; CI: 3.86-26.30).
Conclusion: The finding revealed that the majority of postpartum women reported poorer health-related QoL. Thus, stakeholders should give attention to significant factors to set up measures to prevent and improve women's postpartum health-related QoL, and should be aware of women about the risk associated with poor health-related QoL.
Competing Interests: The authors declared that they have no competing interests or personal interactions that could have been believed to affect the work presented in this study.
(© 2024 The Authors.)