Quality of life after vaginal and cesarean deliveries: a systematic review and meta-analysis

International Journal of Human Rights in Healthcare, Ahead of Print. Purpose There are so many studies which evaluated the maternal quality of life based on their delivery type with different results. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the effect of type of delivery on the maternal QOL systematically. Design/methodology/approach In this systematic review, which was conducted for 15 years (2000-2016), the international databases including PubMed, Scopes and ISI and the Persian databases were searched using the following words: quality of life or health-related quality of life, vaginal delivery, cesarean delivery or cesarean section. PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) was adopted for this study. The quality of articles was assessed by a checklist that has been used in previous studies. All of the data analysis was performed using STATA ver.12. Findings In total, 13 articles were included in the present systematic review and meta-analysis. The overall sample included 8,136 women (3,990 cesareans vs 4,146 vaginal). The results of the random effect model for eight QOL dimensions based on SF-36 questionnaire showed that there was no significant difference between two groups in terms of QOL. But this model for four QOL dimensions of WHOQOL showed that the maternal in two groups had a significant difference in two dimensions of QOL (mental health and total health) and insignificant difference in other dimensions. Research limitations...
Source: International Journal of Human Rights in Healthcare - Category: International Medicine & Public Health Source Type: research