Major obstetric hemorrhage: a follow-up survey on quality of life of women and their partners
Summary (3 min read)
Introduction
- Major obstetric hemorrhage (MOH) contributes to significant maternal morbidity and mortality [1] .
- In 2010, a single unit study addressing quality of life (QOL) after uterine arterial embolization because of MOH was published [15] .
- QOL is a multidimensional concept and describes the individual or group's well-being on several domains: physical, functional, psychological and social [18] .
- The Common Sense Model (CSM) of self-regulation provides a theoretically based explanation for the relation between illness perceptions and QOL [22] .
Methods
- This study is part of a 2-year nationwide cohort study that assessed severe acute maternal morbidity and mortality during pregnancy, delivery, and puerperium in the Netherlands [23] .
- Women were included nationwide from 98 hospitals with a maternity unit from 1 August 2004 until 1 August 2006.
- Detailed information about the data collection has been described previously [23] .
- An attempt to contact all women who experienced MOH (n ¼ 189), defined as peripartum hysterectomy orembolization after a minimum gestational age of 24 completed weeks, was made between June 2012 and August 2013.
- All women and partners received a questionnaire at their home address via regular mail.
Questionnaires
- The results of the questionnaire can be compared to five reference groups which are provided by the B-IPQ.
- The authors chose patients recovering from myocardial infarction because this is a comparable condition (short and potential life-threatening) and patients suffering from asthma because of comparable average age and better representation of women.
- Because of the shortcomings of the provided reference groups, Dutch patients with SLE (Systemic Lupus Erythematosus) were added as a reference group as described by Daleboudt et al. [28] .
- Furthermore, a patient survey was added, addressing women's and partners' experiences of the event and of hospital care and aspects of somatic recovery such as: lactation and recurrence of menstruational cycle and successive pregnancies (if applicable).
Drawings
- Illness perceptions are usually assessed with questionnaires.
- All women were asked to retrospectively draw images of her uterus and pelvic area during the event (Drawing 1) and at the time of returning the questionnaires (Drawing 2).
- Congruity between scores was assessed by intraclass correlation coefficients.
- Mean scores of drawing 1 and drawing 2 were calculated and compared.
Statistics
- Descriptive statistics were used to describe clinical parameters.
- Differences between dichotomous variables were analyzed with chi-square tests.
- To examine the influence of illness perceptions on QOL, correlations between questionnaire scores RAND-36 and B-IPQ were analyzed with Pearson's correlation coefficient.
- No corrections for multiple testing have been applied.
Results
- Questionnaires were filled in between June 2012 and August 2013, the range of the interval between the event and the completion of the questionnaires was 6-9 years.
- Figure 1 describes selection and inclusion participants.
RAND-36 (Table 2, Figure 2)
- Included women scored similar to gender-and agespecific reference groups except for four dimensions.
- Compared to the gender-specific reference group, women scored better on dimension "physical functioning" and "pain" and worse on dimension "vitality".
- Compared to the age-specific reference group, women scored better on dimension "physical functioning" and "pain" and worse on dimension "vitality" and "social functioning".
- Women who were treated with embolization scored better compared to women who were treated with hysterectomy on all dimensions and significantly better on dimensions: "pain" and "role limitations (due to physical problems)" .
Partners
- Compared to their age-specific and gender-specific reference group, partners scored significantly better on dimensions: "physical functioning", "pain", "role limitations (due to emotional problems)", "role limitations (due to physical problems)", and "social functioning".
- The score on "degree of blood loss", "degree of damage to the uterus", and "psychological impact", ranging from 0 to 12, dropped from 6.1 (Drawing 1) to 2.3 (Drawing 2) for women after embolization.
- Neither drawing scores and B-IPQ scores nor drawing surfaces and B-IPQ scores correlated significantly.
B-IPQ (Table 3)
- The reported impact of the event reflected by dimension "consequences" is higher than the impact reported by patients of reference groups.
- Women in their study experienced less disease-related symptoms ("identity") and felt less concerned compared to patients with asthma or SLE.
- Women treated with embolization scored significantly lower on dimensions "consequences" and The values represent n (%) unless otherwise stated.
- Accreta, increta, and percreta, also known as ÃÃ accr/incr/percr.
- "timeline" and significantly higher on "treatment control" compared to women treated with hysterectomy.
Survey
- The majority of women and partners (75%) were satisfied with the hospital care provided.
- In general, women and partners highly appreciated personal attention, compassionate care, and time for questions and explanations.
- "I looked death in the eye", also known as One woman illustrated.
- The authors found contradictory expressions of "benefit finding" as reflected by the Women reacted extremely diverse concerning the impact of the loss of their uterus.
Main findings
- Women in this study appear to have similar QOL compared to reference groups 6-9 years after the event.
- Women treated with embolization experienced less impact and a shorter duration of the event, and expected more effect of the treatment, compared to women treated with hysterectomy.
- This is reflected in the results of the RAND questionnaire with less reported pain and better physical functioning, which is compatible with the common sense model.
- At the time of returning questionnaires drawing, also known as Lower.
- "Bloedklonten, erg veel bloed" (blood cloths, a lot of blood).
Strengths and limitations
- The strength of this cohort study is the nationwide coverage and the fact that all women who met the inclusion criteria were identified.
- The results of this study, however, should be seen in the light of a relatively low response rate.
- As far as the authors know, this study gives the first results on QOL of partners of women who suffered from MOH.
- This means that the less concerned or emotional a person is about the event, the better the general health perception is.
- As mentioned before, QOL is variable over time.
Interpretation
- QOL studies in women after MOH are small in number.
- Transfused women scored better on fatigue scales and marginally better on the RAND-36.
- Unlike their findings, surviving women scored significantly lower on dimensions "physical functioning" and "pain" compared to healthy Chinese women living in Hong Kong.
- The difference in outcome between the Chinese and the women included in their study might be explained by the fact that 62% had other admission reasons than MOH.
Clinical implications
- In striving to restore or maintain QOL after MOH health-care providers should consider offering more extensive follow-up than the standard 6-week outpatient visit, which is routine in the Netherlands.
- In addition, the authors should keep partners informed during the absence of their wives in the operating theater.
- Good QOL could be the result of "benefit finding".
- What this study adds Women who were treated with embolization of the uterine artery for MOH show better QOL than women who were treated with hysterectomy.
- More extensive follow-up may be beneficial for some couples.
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Citations
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Cites background or result from "Major obstetric hemorrhage: a follo..."
...[20,21] found no long-term effects on quality of life....
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...Few studies have also addressed the partner perspective [12,16,21]....
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...This situation has already been reported by others [11,12,16,21]....
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...Their 2-year nationwide cohort study included 58 women managed for PPH [21]....
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References
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...nificant maternal morbidity and mortality [1]....
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...described QOL in the 6 weeks after PPH in women with or without blood transfusion [35]....
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...reported on women after admission to an obstetric ICU in a 10-year retrospective cohort study of 50 women [36]....
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Frequently Asked Questions (9)
Q2. What is the effect of embolization on the health of a woman?
In general, one could say that a woman treated with embolization for MOH perceives the event as shorter, with more personal control and with less consequence compared to a woman treated with hysterectomy.
Q3. What is the likely explanation for the positive effect of MOH on women?
Women in that study showed good QOL which most likely could be explained by “benefit finding”: people who have experienced a traumatic event have the capacity to find benefits from the situation [16,17].
Q4. How many women were satisfied with the care they received?
On the basis of the responses, both patients and partners recognized the severity of the event; 58% of the women thought they were going to die compared to 72% of their partners.
Q5. What did the majority of women and partners say about the care they received?
not all women appeared satisfied with the provided care as one woman explained: “Some health-care workers are born to this work, they are compassionate, sweet and understanding.
Q6. How did the women and partners respond to the hospital care?
In general, women and partners highly appreciated personal attention, compassionate care, and time for questions and explanations.
Q7. How long did the questionnaires take to complete?
Questionnaires were filled in between June 2012 and August 2013, the range of the interval between the event and the completion of the questionnaires was 6–9 years.
Q8. What is the effect of the emotional response on QOL?
In addition, the greater the emotional response, the more problems people experience with functioning (due to physical problems) and with social functioning.
Q9. What is the way to determine the QOL of a woman after a MOH?
Future research may benefit from a reference group of healthy couples who, for instance, experienced an uncomplicated birth on the same day, in the same hospital as included women who suffered MOH.