Health‐related quality of life among Ethiopian pregnant women during COVID‐19 pandemic

OBJECTIVE: To explore the quality of life and its association with perceived social support and pandemic fear among pregnant women. METHODS: Cross‐sectional study was conducted among 384 pregnant mothers at southwest Ethiopia from August 1, 2020, to August 15, 2020. Participants were included by consecutive sampling. Quality of life was assessed by short version of WHO quality of life. Social support and fear of COVID‐19 were evaluated by Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS) and fear of COVID‐19 scale (FCoV‐19S), respectively. Data were analyzed by SPSS version 23.0. Frequency and percentage for categorical variables, and mean ± SD for continuous variables were calculated. Independent sample t test and ANOVA were employed to compare the groups of normally distributed variables. Multiple regressions were performed, and Pearson correlation (r) was used to explore the relationships. Statistical significance was declared at p < .05, and 95% CI was calculated. RESULTS: The mean age of the participants was 31.3 ± 7.7, and 40.4% of them were between the ages of 25–34. The mean scores of participants those living with <5 family members and those living with ≥5 family members were significantly different [t(382) = 3.09, p = .002]. Participants with primary education have significantly high mean score of WHOQOL‐BREF from those participants with no formal education (p = .028, MD = −1.9). Moderate negative correlation was observed between the scores of WHOQOL‐BREF and FCoV‐19S. All the components of MSPSS had positively associated with WHOQOL‐BREF score at significant level. On final model, FCoV‐19S score has uniquely accounted for 19.4% of variance in WHOQOL‐BREF. CONCLUSIONS: Perceived social support has positively linked to QOL among pregnant women during COVID‐19 pandemic. Pandemic‐related fear has negative association with QOL and may be considered independent contributor of decreased quality of life in this population.