Health-related quality of life and its predicting factors among pregnant and breastfeeding women in the Coastal Community, Indonesia

Background
Women’s health is increasingly recognized as a global health priority. Problems during pregnancy and childbirth are not always life-threatening but can have a significant impact on quality of life.

Objectives
This study aims to analyze determinants of the quality of life of pregnant and breastfeeding women in the North Coastal Community, Banyuwangi, East Java, Indonesia.

Material and methods
This is a cross-sectional study conducted in August–November 2018. We recruited 473 pregnant and breastfeeding women who had babies aged 0–6 months registered at the Antenatal Care Center (Posyandu/Polindes) in the last month before the survey and used the cluster sampling method with Posyandu/Polindes as the cluster. Quality of life was measured using the SF-12 Health Survey questionnaire. Data was analyzed using multiple logistic regression using STATA 14.

Results
Most of the women had a lower quality of life (64.2%). Mothers with higher mental-emotional score had 3.60 times greater odds of having lower quality of life compared to mothers with lower mental-emotional score (AOR higher-lower = 3.60, 95% CI = 1.49–8.72, p-value = 0.005), after controlling for tribe, age of mother, and mother’s occupation.

Conclusions
Determinants of lower maternal quality of life were mental-emotional score. The government needs to provide counseling to pregnant and lactating women to increase quality of life through improvement in mental-emotional status.