Objectives:
to study the effects of psychological and behavioral factors on coping among infertility patients treated in the community. The study has two parts, the first aimed at identifying factors that predict psychological adjustment among infertilty patients and treatment success and the second aimed at instructing patients before te medical encounter in order to improve their involvement and satisfaction.
Working hypotheses:
(a) Dispositional and situational optimism (expectations regarding treatment success) and a more favorable perception of the fertility problem will be related to better psychological adjustment (lower distress and higher well-being) at the first visit to the infertility treatment and to less decline in adjustment after treatment failure;
(b) Dispositional and situational optimism, favorable problem perception and better adjustment will be related to treatment success;
(c) Instructing patient how to prepare for the medical encounter will increase their effective involvement in the encounter and result in satisfaction and more information obtained.
Methodology:
1) 200 women will be recruited to the part 1 (and their spouses, if present) at their first visit to an infertility clinic. They will fill in questionnaires assessing optimism, problem perception, and psychological adjustment. An additional questionnaire will be mailed to them 3-4 months later, after they underwent a cycle of treatment. An additional follow-up will be conducted 3 months later, so that information about treatment success will be obtained from the first 6 months of treatment;
2) 150 women will be recruited to part 2, half of them to a control grou, which will fill in a short questionnaire before and after the medical encounter, and half to the experimental group, who will fill in these questionnaires and in addition will receive written training in preparation for the encounter.
Significance of the proposed research:
most fertility problems are not psychogenically caused, yet psychological distress and difficulties in coping with the resultant stress are known to hamper treatment success. These issues have been studied mainly in the context of IVF treatment and little is known about the factors that cause distress among women treated in the community.
Uncovering such factors will allow for the identification of women at risk, in order to provide them with appropriate treatment and counseling. |