2008/10/11 by Anaïs Lacasse, Enrique Rey, Ema Ferreira +2 · 1 voice · 1 citation
Medicine · #Appendicitis Diagnosis and Management #Nausea and vomiting management #Pregnancy and Medication Impact
paper · doi:10.1111/j.1471-0528.2008.01891.x
openalex publication_date 2008/10/11 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to determine the impact of nausea and vomiting of pregnancy (NVP) and other determinants on generic and NVP-specific health-related quality of life (QOL) in the first trimester of pregnancy. DESIGN: Prospective study. SETTING: Centre Hospitalier Universitaire (CHU) Sainte-Justine or René-Laennec clinics, Montreal, Quebec, Canada. POPULATION: Pregnant women attending the clinics for their prenatal care from 2004 to 2006. Women were eligible if they were > or =18 years of age and < or =16 weeks of gestation at the time of their first prenatal visit. METHODS: After their first prenatal visit, women were asked to fill out a questionnaire covering maternal characteristics, presence and severity of NVP, and health-related QOL. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: QOL was measured by the generic 12-item Short Form Health Survey v.1 (SF-12) and the NVP-specific Quality of Life for Nausea and Vomiting during Pregnancy. RESULTS: Of the 367 pregnant women included in the study, 78.5% of women reported NVP in the first trimester of pregnancy. Multivariable linear models showed that presence of NVP in the first trimester of pregnancy was significantly associated with a lower physical component summary scale (P < 0.0001) and mental component summary scale (P = 0.0066) of the SF-12 scores. More severe NVP (moderate versus mild: P = 0.0002; severe versus mild: P = 0.0177 as measured by the validated modified Pregnancy-Unique Quantification of Emesis and Nausea index), intensity of nausea symptoms reported on a visual analogue scale (P < 0.0001), and nonpharmacological methods used to ease NVP symptoms in the first trimester of pregnancy (P = 0.0059) were significantly associated with poorer NVP-specific QOL among women suffering from NVP. CONCLUSION: These findings show that presence and severity of NVP have a negative impact on health-related QOL, which emphasises the importance of an optimal management of NVP.