Self esteem, body image concern and quality of life among married women with polycystic ovary syndrome

Abstract

The ann of the present study was to ex plore the relat ionship between self-esteem, psychological distress, body image concem and health related qual ity of life among marri ed women with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (peOS). Demographic variab les like age, monthly income, education, work status, duration of marriage and miscarriage history were ex plored with reference to the study variables. Sample consisted of 200 married women having peas diagnosed by a physician. Data was collected through convenience and purposive sampling teclmiques. Self-esteem was assessed through Rosenberg' s self-esteem scale (Rosenberg, 1979), psychological distress was measured through Kessler's distress scale (Prochaska, Sung, Max, Shi, & Ong, 20 13), while body image concem was measured through body image concern inventory (Li ttl eton, Axsom, & Pury. 2005), and health related quality of; life was measured through polycystic ovary syndrome questionnaire (Cronion et aI., 1998). All the scales were used in English language. The snldy was carried out in two phases. In the fi rst phase qualitative inquiry was done, tindings of whi ch revealed that women having PCOS had fa ir understanding of the various aspects of the disease. The second part consisted of the mam study (N=200). Results yielded that there was a significant negative relationship between body image concern, psychologicnJ distress and health related quality ofli fe among married women with PCOS. The results also indicated that tllcre was significant positive relationship between self-esteem and health related quality of life. Findings also indicated tllat psychological distress negatively predi cts the health related quality of life among married women with pcas. The overall model accounted for 21% of vari ance among sel f-esteem, distress, body image concern and health related quality of li fe. Findings also ind icated that psychological distress mediates the relationship between self-esteem and health related quality of life. Additionally, body image concem also mediates the relationship between self-esteem and health related qual ity of life. Findings also indicated that women who were married for two years sco red higher on body image concerns as compared to women who were married for more than two years. Also, women with a miscarriage hi story scored higher means on body hair domain of health related quality of life as compared to women with no miscarriage hi story. Further, women who had no previous kids scored higher 0 11 emot iona l and menstruation subscales of hea lth related quality of life as compared to women who already had kids. Findings on mean differences across age indicated that women in VI middle adulthood scored lower 011 psychological distress, body image conccms and emot ional subscale of health related quality of life as compared to women in early adulthood . Fi ndings also indicated that women who were diagnosed with peas and had less than two-year historyofPCOS had higher scores on self-esteem and emotional subscale of health relnted quali ty of li fe as compared to women who had been diagnosed for more than two years. Findings of the present study show implications in health and clini cal domains along with psychiatry and psychology. Prevention programs can be designed to overcome the psychological correlates of women with peDS.