The effect of fear of pregnancy on contraceptive intention and quality of sexual life in women with heart disease of reproductive age

This study was conducted to determine the effect of fear of pregnancy on contraceptive intention and quality of sexual life in women of reproductive age with heart disease. The research population consisted of women who came to the cardiology outpatient clinic of a training and research hospital affiliated with the Istanbul Provincial Health Directorate. The research sample consisted of 226 women with heart disease between the ages of 18-49 who came to the cardiology outpatient clinic. The data of the study were collected using the Personal Information Form, Contraceptive Intention Scale (CNÖ) and Sexual Quality of Life Scale-Female (CYKÖ-K) form scale. In evaluating the data, mean and standard deviation, percentages, Independent Sample t Test or One-Way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), Post-Hoc Tukey HSD, Mann Whitney U Test and Kruskal Wallis Variance Analysis, Mann Whitney with Bonferroni Correction and skewness are used to test the normal distribution assumption. and kurtosis coefficients were used. Pearson Correlation Analysis and Regression Analysis were applied to examine the relationships between variables. It was determined that %54 of the women participating in the study had their sexual lives affected by heart disease and %58.4 were afraid of pregnancy due to heart disease. The average score of the contraceptive intention scale of the women participating in the study is 7.59±3.31, and the average score of the sexual quality of life scale is 82.58±16.30. The variable of avoiding sexual intercourse (β= -1.860; p<0.05) due to fear of pregnancy significantly predicts the scores of the contraceptive intention scale (F=5.156; p=0.002).. In addition, the variables of fear of pregnancy (β=0.142; p<0.05) even when seeing pregnant women and avoiding sexual intercourse (β=0.146; p<0.05) because of fear of pregnancy significantly predicted our dependent variable, the sexual quality of life scale scores (F=4.163; p<0.05).. As a result, it was determined that the fear of conception affected women's contraceptive intentions and quality of sexual life. Key Words: Heart disease, fear of pregnancy, quality of life, sexuality, contraceptive method.