Evaluation of Prenatal Comfort, Sleep, and Quality of Life in Pregnant Women With Cholestasis: a Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

Background: Associated with adverse pregnancy outcomes, intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy is the most prevalent liver disease that women typically experience during pregnancy. This study aimed to evaluate prenatal comfort, sleep, and quality of life in pregnant women with cholestasis. Methods: This cross-sectional study was implemented between November 2022 and June 2023 at Mardin Training and Research Hospital with 150 pregnant women who received a diagnosis of pregnancy-induced intrahepatic cholestasis and agreed to participate. The following tools were utilized to collect data: A personal information form exploring socio-demographic and obstetric characteristics of participants, the Prenatal Comfort Scale (PCS), the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), and the World Health Organization Quality of Life-Brief Form (WHOQOL-BREF). Results: The mean age of participants was 27.79 +/- 6.33 years. The mean PCS and PSQI scores were 61.20 +/- 5.84 and 9.52 +/- 3.02, respectively. The mean scores of "physical health, psychological health, social relationships, and environmental health" sub-dimensions in WHOQOL-BREF were 10.63 +/- 2.18, 10.48 +/- 2.10, 11.31 +/- 3.28, and 11.27 +/- 2.10, respectively. A significant difference was found for PSQI regarding hospitalization status and change in sleep quality variables (p = 0.025 and p = 0.035, respectively). Conclusions: Cholestasis of pregnancy creates problems such as pruritus, body image changes, hospitalization, and poor sleep quality in women. This study showed that pregnant women with cholestasis had low levels of sleep quality and quality of life, implying that cholestasis affects their sleep quality, prenatal comfort levels, and quality of life in general. In addition, it is seen that women with this problem do not want to fall pregnant again.