Assessment of Psycho-emotional Distress Due to Age, Body Mass Index, and Marital Status in Polycystic Ovary Syndrome in North Indian Population

Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is a multifaceted endocrine disorder in reproductive age having a greater impact on health-related quality of life (HRQOL). The aim of this study was to find out PCOS demographics and its related HRQOL effects for improving psychological understanding in disease management.

A prospective questionnaire-based study was conducted for a period of twelve months at All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Patna, India. The data of 100 PCOS cases were collected about socio-demographic status, clinical history, and dietary intake. Then, a validated PCOS questionnaire (PCOSQ) was used to observe the impact of PCOS symptoms on patients’ HRQOL.

The overall 57% and 48% of PCOS cases belonged to the age range of 20-30 years and had a body mass index (BMI) of >25-30, respectively. Based on the results, a significant difference was observed in the mean score of PCOSQ vs. marital status in PCOS cases with respect to emotion (P=0.039), body weight (P=0.002), and infertility (P=0.001). Furthermore, the result showed a significant difference in the domain of emotion (P=0.008), body hair (P=0.035), body weight (P<0.001), and infertility (P=0.018) among BMI group, and a high score was observed in the BMI group <18 in comparison to the other groups of BMI.

In general, our findings indicated that infertility, emotions, and BMI had extremely higher impacts on the HRQOL of women suffering from PCOS although their educational status failed to affect HRQOL