Determination Of The Level Of Loneliness And Factors Affecting Family Support Perceived By Women Treated With Infertility Clinic

Objective: Infertility is becoming an important public health problem. The study was conducted and supplemented to determine the level of loneliness and the factors affecting family support perceived by women who were treated in the infertility clinic. Material and Methods: The sample of universe was constituted of 180 infertile women who have infertility diagnosis, were under treatment, accepted to participate to the study as voluntary and answered to questions completely at special a university hospital IVF center between 1th February 2017 and 1th June 2017. Data was collected with “Sociodemographic Information Form” by viewing face-to face, “UCLA Loneliness Scale” and “Perceived Family Support Scale.” One-way variance analysis and Tukey HSD test, Kruskal-Wallis test and Mann Whitney-U test were used in the evaluation of the data. Results: It is found that average age of participants was 32.63±5.78 and 30% of them were (n=54) between 26-30 years old. It is determined that their mean scores were 47.24±12.06 for ULS and 28.67±8.83 for PFSS. When the relation between ULS and PFSS mean score was investigated; it is found that there was a powerful negative and very advanced level significant relation between perceived family support and loneliness levels of participants (p<0.001, r=-0.73). Conclusion: According to these results; In order to be successful in infertility treatment, factors such as age, education, family type, income status, treatment experience, smoking and alcohol use should be evaluated which affect the level of loneliness and perceived family support. During treatment process, knowing loneliness statutes of people who are under infertility treatment and supplying family support could facilitate adaptation to infertility and treatment of them