Investigating the effect of emotional disclosure on the quality of life of women after abortion: a randomized controlled clinical trial.

Abstract

Background: Women often experience various psychological complications following abortion, which significantly impair their quality of life. Emotional disclosure is one of the non-pharmacological methods for reducing psychological disorder symptoms. However, its specific effects in post-abortion contexts remain unclear. therefore this study aimed to evaluate the effect of emotional disclosure on quality of life among women after spontaneous abortion.

Methods: In this randomized controlled clinical trial, 65 eligible women hospitalized due to spontaneous abortion at Valiasr and Shahid Rahimi hospitals in Birjand in 2021 were asked to complete demographic and quality-of-life questionnaires after providing informed consent. The women were randomly assigned to either the intervention or control group using a random sequence generated from the website ( www.

Randomization: com ). The control group received only the standard medical and education care of the hospital. The intervention group received the standard hospital education and medical care, along with the emotional disclosure intervention. After one individual training session, the intervention group performed four home writing sessions (15-20 min, twice weekly) with two weekly 15-20 min phone sessions with the researcher for verbal disclosure. The quality-of-life questionnaire was completed by both groups before, immediately after, and one month following the intervention. Data were analyzed using SPSS 22 statistical software, with a significance level set at P > 0.05. Statistical tests included the independent t-test, Mann-Whitney U test, repeated-measures analysis of variance (ANOVA), and chi-square test.

Results: The results indicated that the intervention group demonstrated a significant improvement in the physical (P = 0.03), mental, and environmental (P = 0.01) domains of quality of life compared to the control group. However, no significant difference was observed in the social relationships aspect, either immediately after the intervention (P = 0.063) or one month later (P = 0.054), between the two groups.

Conclusion: The study found that emotional disclosure significantly improved physical, psychological, and environmental quality of life domains in women after abortion, but had no significant effect on social relationships.

Trial registration: This research project was registered at the Iranian Registry of Clinical Trials, IRCT registration number: IRCT20210528051421N1, Registration date: 2021-06-29.