Patient-centered fertility care perceptions and treatment-related quality of life with infertility

Abstract

Introduction

Despite patient-centered care has positive effects on treatment and increases the quality of care, healthcare workers do not emphasize patient-centered care enough and this situation may negatively affect the treatment-related QoL. This study aimed to investigate the perceptions of infertile women regarding patient-centered fertility care and treatment-related quality of life.

Methods

Descriptive Information Form, Patient-Centered Fertility Care Questionnaire for Infertile Women, and FertiQol Treatment Module were used to collect data from 160 infertile women in Türkiye between July and October 2020.

Results

The mean patient-centered care perception score was 7.49 ± 1.91, and participants received a mean score of 65.96 ± 15.65 on FertiQol Treatment Module. A statistically significant positive correlation existed between patient-centered fertility care perception and the FertiQol Treatment Module scores. Nearly half of the women received sufficient attention and support from the nurses, and more than half of the women stated that the nurses were considerate toward them. However, 48.8% of the women reported were not informed about the side effects of the drugs, and 36.9% of them were not informed about the injection methods.

Conclusion

The components of patient-centered fertility care were included in fertility treatment. Patient-centered fertility care approach has been found to correlate to the treatment-related QoL. But due to the lack of received information about the fertility treatments, it is suggested that healthcare professionals in fertility clinics should provide therapeutic education to improve the patient-centered care perceptions and treatment related QoL of the infertile individuals.