Association of contraceptive methods and health-related quality of life in women of higher and lower than 35 years

Introduction: According to previous studies, contraceptive methods were one of the factors that have been associated with the health-related quality of life (HRQoL) of women in different societies. This study aimed to investigate the association between contraceptive methods and HRQoL in women. Materials and Methods: The current cross-sectional study was conducted on married women of reproductive age (20 to 50 years) residing in district 13 of Tehran between 1394 and 1396. Data on social-demographic information and contraceptive methods have been collected using valid questionnaires through interviews. Data on HRQoL was collected using the Persian version of Short-Form 12-Item Health Survey version-2 (SF-12v2). Results: The mean age of the participants was 38.6±6.9 years. The predominant method of contraception in about half of the participants (46.9%) was the natural method. Mean physical and psychological summary scores of quality of life in women aged 20-35 years were 49.6±9.9 and 46.6±10.3, respectively, and in women >35 years were 47.4±8.4 and 46.7±10.8, respectively. Except for the bodily pain subscale in women aged 20-35 years (P=0.005), the HRQoL scores in none of its subscales were significantly different in women using different methods of contraception. In the adjusted model, the chance of reporting poor HRQoL in the psychological dimension in women aged 35-50 years using hormonal methods was 2.36 times higher than in women using the natural method (95% CI=1.00-5.57, P=0.05). Conclusion: The results of the present study showed that in women aged 35-50 years, using hormonal methods of contraception compared to the natural method can lead to a weaker assessment of the psychological dimension of HRQoL. Correspondingly, this result was not observed for the physical dimension of HRQoL for any of the methods in the studied age groups.