The Relationship between Socio-demographic Characteristics, Body Image and Quality of Life with Physiological Skin Changes in Pregnancy

Physiological skin changes in pregnant women can negatively affect both women's self-image and their quality of life. This study aimed to examine the relationship between socio-demographic characteristics, body image, and quality of life with physiological skin changes in pregnant women.

This cross-sectional study was performed on pregnant women who attended the obstetricoutpatient clinic of a training and research hospital in Turkey between April and May 2019. The sample consisted of 350 pregnant women aged 18-45, who were in their second or third trimester, had singleton pregnancy and gave birth to a healthy fetus, and were literate in Turkish. A questionnaire featuring socio-demographic and obstetric characteristics, alongside the Body-Cathexis Scale and SKINDEX-16 for measuring body image and quality of life were used to collect the data.  The data were analyzed with Mann‐Whitney U Test, Chi-square test and spearman correlation.

A significant difference was found between women with and without Stria gravidarum, hirsutism, androgenetic alopecia, and varicose veins according to the subjects’ socio-demographic and obstetric characteristics. There was a significant difference in the body-image of pregnant women according to presence of varicose vein and hirsutism status (P<0,05). The same also applied to their quality of life, according to presence of melasma, linea nigra, stria gravidarum, gingival change, pruritus, and hirsutism (p<0.05). 

The physiological skin changes can affect the body image and quality of life of the pregnant women. Counseling services should be offered to pregnant women think that their life is affected by skin changes during pregnancy.