Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2023 May 22;23(1):372.
doi: 10.1186/s12884-023-05708-0.

The direct and mediating effect of social support on health-related quality of life during pregnancy among Australian women

Asres Bedaso  1   2 , Jon Adams  3 , Wenbo Peng  3 , David Sibbritt  3
Affiliations

The direct and mediating effect of social support on health-related quality of life during pregnancy among Australian women

Asres Bedaso et al. BMC Pregnancy Childbirth. .

Abstract

Background: Prenatal stress can have a negative effect on the quality of life (QoL) of pregnant women. Social support plays a vital role in improving the psychological well-being of pregnant women by enhancing their stress-coping ability. The current study assessed the association between social support and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) as well as the mediating role of social support in the linkage between perceived stress and HRQoL among pregnant Australian women.

Methods: Secondary data was obtained from 493 women who reported being pregnant in survey six of the 1973-78 cohort of the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health (ALSWH). Social support and perceived stress were assessed using the Medical Outcomes Study Social Support Index (MOS-SSS-19) and the Perceived Stress Scale, respectively. The Mental Component Scale (MCS) and Physical Component Scale (PCS) of the SF-36 were used to examine the mental and physical HRQoL. A mediation model was used to examine the mediating effect of social support in the relationship between perceived stress and HRQoL. A multivariate quantile regression (QR) model was used to assess the association between social support and HRQoL after adjusting for potential confounders.

Result: The mean age of the pregnant women was 35.8 years. The mediational analysis revealed that emotional/informational support (β= -1.53; 95% CI: -2.36, -0.78), tangible support (β= -0.64; 95% CI: -1.29, -0.09), and affectionate support/positive social interaction (β= -1.33; 95% CI: -2.25, -0.48), played a significant mediating role in the relationship between perceived stress and mental health-related QoL. In addition, perceived stress had a significant indirect effect on mental health-related QoL through overall social support (β = -1.38; 95% CI: -2.28, -0.56), and the mediator accounted for approximately 14.3% of the total effect. The multivariate QR analysis indicated that all the domains of social support and overall social support scores were positively associated with higher MCS scores (p < 0.05). However, social support was found to have no significant association with PCS (p > 0.05).

Conclusion: Social support plays a direct and mediating role in improving the HRQoL of pregnant Australian women. Maternal health professionals need to consider social support as an essential tool to improve the HRQoL of pregnant women. Further, as part of routine antenatal care activity, assessing pregnant women's level of social support is beneficial.

Keywords: Health-related quality of life; Mediation; Pregnancy; Social support; Stress.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
The proposed mediation model to examine the mediating role of social support
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Guardino CM, Dunkel Schetter C. Coping during pregnancy: a systematic review and recommendations. Health Psychol Rev. 2014;8(1):70–94. doi: 10.1080/17437199.2012.752659. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Razurel C, Kaiser B, Sellenet C, Epiney M. Relation between perceived stress, social support, and coping strategies and maternal well-being: a review of the literature. Women Health. 2013;53(1):74–99. doi: 10.1080/03630242.2012.732681. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Alzboon G, Vural G. Factors influencing the quality of life of healthy pregnant women in North Jordan. Medicina. 2019;55(6):278. doi: 10.3390/medicina55060278. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Calou CGP, Pinheiro AKB, Castro RCMB, Oliveira MFd, Aquino PdS, Antezana FJ. Health related quality of life of pregnant women and associated factors: An integrative review. 2014.
    1. World Health Organization Division of Mental Health and Prevention of Substance Abuse WHOQOL. : Measuring Quality of Life. [(accessed on 22 April 2018)]; Available online: http://www.who.int/iris/handle/10665/63482.

Supplementary concepts

LinkOut - more resources