RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SOCIAL SUPPORT AND QUALITY OF LIFE IN PREGNANT WOMEN AT HABITUAL RISK
Support, quality of life, pregnancy
Introduction: Quality of life (QoL) in pregnant women has been investigated over the years. Family and financial support, recreational activities, psychological support, prenatal care are relevant issues so that the pregnant women may feel welcomed and inserted in the biopsychosocial scope, minimizing complications during pregnancy, childbirth and postpartum. Aims: To verify the relationship between quality of life and social support in pregnant women at usual risk. Methodology: This is an observational cross-sectional study. The initial sample consisted of 201 pregnant women, who were between the first and third trimester of pregnancy. After observing the exclusion criteria, there were 102 pregnant women who made up the final sample. An initial assessment form, The Medical Outcomes Study for Social Support Survey, and the Ferrans and Powers Quality of Life Questionnaire were used. For statistical analysis, the Kolmogorov-Smirnov tests were used to perform the distribution of quantitative variables. The correlation between social support and quality of life was performed using the Spearman test, with p value lower than 0.05. Results: The sample had chronological and gestational age mean of 31.06 (±3.65) years and 23.84 (±5.62) weeks, respectively. The data obtained demonstrated a relatively high perception of QOL, with a total score of 22.64 (±3.23). The domains with the highest values were family and psychological/spiritual, with a total score of 25.42± 3.47 and 23.76 ± 3.83 respectively. The score obtained for social support had an mean over the total score of 77.62, suggesting a good perception of social support by the participants. The correlation between social support and quality of life presented a value of 0.318, with p value less than 0.001. Conclusion: The observed data suggest that there is a relationship between social support and quality of life in the group of pregnant women, but more studies need to be carried out to confirm or refute the results of this study.