Abstract

GHODSBIN, Fariba; YAZDANI, Khadije; JAHANBIN, Iran  and  KESHAVARZI, Sareh. The effect of Home Visit during the first six weeks of postpartum on the quality of life of primiparous women referred to Shiraz health centers of Shiraz University of Medical Sciences. Invest. educ. enferm [online]. 2012, vol.30, n.3, pp.339-345. ISSN 0120-5307.

Objective. To evaluate the effect of home visitation programs during the first six weeks of postpartum on the quality of life of primiparous women. Methodology. Controlled clinical trial. The 52 primiparous women who were referred to healthcare centers of the University of Shiraz (Iran) were randomly assigned to either an intervention group (n = 26) or a control group (n = 26). An instrument was applied including demographic information and the Specific Postnatal Quality of Life (SPQOL) scale (30 items with Likert-type response options ranging from 0 to 4, the higher the score the better the quality of life). The intervention conducted during the first six weeks of postpartum consisted of an educational program developed during four sessions from 30 minutes to one hour, dealing with topics of nutrition, physical support, ways of having appropriate relations with the spouse, and exercises for the postpartum. During weeks 0 and 6, the SPQOF was applied in both study groups. Results. Both groups were similar regarding the socio-demographic variables. The difference between SPQOL scores from the first and second evaluations was 39.6 in the intervention group versus 6.2 in the control group (p < 0.001). Conclusion. The results from this study indicate that the home visitation program was related to improved quality of life of primiparous women during the first six weeks of postpartum.

Keywords : home visit; quality of life; parity; postpartum period.

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