WEDNESDAY, Nov. 14 (HealthDay News) -- Quality of life is high for parents who adopt, and is also high for those who undergo in vitro fertilization (IVF), even if it is unsuccessful, as long as there are children in the family, according to a study published in the September issue of Acta Obstetricia et Gynecologica Scandinavica.
Lars Hogström, M.D., from Central Hospital in Skövde, Sweden, and colleagues compared quality of life among couples who adopted a child 4 to 5.5 years earlier with those whose conception was spontaneous (controls) and those who had successful IVF or unsuccessful IVF and lived with or without children. The Psychological General Well Being (PGWB) and Sense of Coherence (SOC) instruments were used to assess quality of life.
After adjustment for seven confounding variables, the researchers found that PGWB scores were higher for the adoption group compared with the unsuccessful IVF-living without children and control groups, and SOC scores were higher than all other groups. Lower PGWB and SOC scores were seen for the unsuccessful IVF-living without children group than for all other groups. There were no differences for PGWB and SOC scores for controls versus those with successful IVF or unsuccessful IVF-living with children.
"Adjusted PGWB and SOC scores revealed a high quality of life in the adoption group. However, the group unsuccessful IVF-living without children had low quality-of-life scores," the authors write. "Quality of life appears to be independent of the outcome of IVF treatment as long as there are children in the family."
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