Investigation of Marital Burnout Status and Some Associated Factors in Pregnant Women Referring to Comprehensive Health Service Centers in Gonabad during 2017

Pregnancy is one of the most important events in marital life. One of the remarkable aspects of this period is marital burnout, which has a significant impact on mother and child. This study aimed to investigate the marital burnout status and some associated factors among pregnant women referring to comprehensive health service centers in Gonabad, Iran, during 2017.

This cross-sectional study included 261 pregnant women who were selected randomly from those referring to health centers in Gonabad, Iran, during 2017. The data were collected using the Pines Marital Burnout and Demographic characteristics form. Furthermore, the data were analyzed in SPSS software (version 25) through the Mann-Whitney and Kruskal Wallis tests. A p-value less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant.

The total mean±SD score of the marital burnout in pregnant women was estimated at 2.63±0.79. The corresponding values were determined at 2.28±0.71, 2.51±0.84, and 2.42±0.88 in physical, psychological, and emotional dimensions. According to the results, the levels (percentage) of marital burnout in pregnant women were very low (21.5%), low (45%), moderate (24.9%), high (7.3%), and very high (0.4%). Regarding demographic and midwifery characteristics, marital burnout correlated significantly with variables, such as husband's education level, number of pregnancy, marriage duration, number of children, and number of male children (P˂0.05); however, there was no significant association between marital burnout and other variables (P˃0.05).

The present study showed that more than half of the pregnant women burned out or were susceptible to the risk of marital burnout. Given the adverse effects of this condition on family, it is of utmost importance to develop effective interventions and programs to deal with this issue.