Abstract:
Background: - Health-related quality of life has been used in public health settings to assess the
effectiveness of interventions and activities to improve the health-related quality of life. The mother
undergoes many physiological, psychological, and social changes after giving birth, which
significantly affects the health-related quality of life. Nonetheless, little is known regarding healthrelated quality of life among postpartum women in Ethiopia.
Objective: To assess health-related quality of life and associated factors among postpartum
women in the Dendi district, West Shoa Zone, Oromia region, Ethiopia, 2022.
Methods: A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted among 429 participants in the
Dendi district. Study participants were selected by a simple random sampling method from July 21
to September 21, 2022. Data were collected using an adopted form of standard with pretested,
structured, and interviewer-administered questionnaires. Data were entered using Epi-Data 3.1 and
then exported to SPSS version 26. Descriptive statistics were used to summarize descriptive data.
Binary logistic regression analysis was computed and variables with p-value < 0.25 were considered
candidates for multivariable logistic regression. Adjusted Odds Ratios (AOR) with 95% confidence
interval were estimated to identify the association. Statistical significance was declared at a p-value
<0.05.
Results: A total of 429 postpartum women were included in the study with a response rate of
94.2%. About 73.7% study participants had a low level health-related quality-of-life with mean
(±SD) of 44.02 ±10.4. The study revealed that residing in an urban (AOR=0.27 [95% CI: 0.10 -
0.74]), having no formal education (AOR=3.44, [95% CI: 1.35-8.74]), receiving at least four
antenatal visits (AOR=0.56, [95% CI: 0.33 - 0.95]), receiving at least one postnatal care
(AOR=0.30, [95% CI:0.14-0.62]), poor social support (AOR=2.23, [95% CI: 1.025 - 4.893]),
having postpartum depression (AOR=2.99, [95% CI: 1.52 - 5.56]), a cesarean delivery (AOR=3.18,
[95% CI: 1.09 - 9.26]), and lowest wealth quintile (AOR=5.68, [95% CI:2.74 - 11.76]) were factors
associated with low health-related quality of life.
Conclusion: The mean health-related quality of life among postpartum women was relatively low.
Low socio-economic, residing in urban, no formal education, poor social support, having
postpartum depression, cesarean section delivery, receiving at least one postnatal care, and
receiving at least four antenatal visits were found to be significantly associated with low healthrelated quality of life. Therefore, the study implies a robust emphasis is needed on interventions to
improve the women’s health-related quality of life during the postpartum period by targeting those
identified factors that were recommended to be in place by different stakeholders
