Quality of life among women with a diagnosis of pelvic organ prolapse at Felege Hiwot Comprehensive Specialized Hospital, Bahir Dar, Northwest Ethiopia: an institutional based cross-sectional study

Introduction and hypothesis: Pelvic organ prolapse is among the most common gynecologic problems worldwide. It greatly influences women's quality of life. However, research regarding the effect of pelvic organ prolapse on quality of life is limited in our study area.

Methods: An institutional-based study design among women with the diagnosis of pelvic organ prolapse at Felege Hiwot Comprehensive Specialized Hospital was employed from May to July 2018. Interviewer-administered questionnaire and Prolapse Quality of Life assessment tool were used to collect data. Gynecologic speculum examination was done to collect objective data. Data were entered into Epi info version 7 and then exported in to SPSS, version 20.0, for analysis. Descriptive statistics and logistic regression were used. All the statistical tests were significant at P < 0.05.

Results: The average prolapse quality of life score was 48.35 ± 22.75 SD. The physical limitation (score: 69.83 ± 28.77 SD) and general health perception (score: 67.39 ± 20.26 SD) domains were the most affected life domains. Younger age (AOR = 3.02 [95% CI: 1.22-7.45]), being illiterate (AOR = 3.52 [95% CI: 1.12-11.10]), and having stage IV POP (AOR = 2.84 [95% CI: 1.16-7.00]) were associated with lower quality of life.

Conclusions: The QOL score showed huge variability among the study participants. The physical limitation and general health perception domains were most affected. Being illiterate, being < 35 years old, and having stage IV pelvic organ prolapse were the factors associated with lower quality of life.