Resilience acts as a moderator in the relationship between infertility-related stress and fertility quality of life among women with infertility: a cross-sectional study

Abstract Background Infertility-related stress can seriously impact the fertility quality of life (QoL) of infertile women. Resilience, as a coping resource, can effectively combat psychological stress. This study aimed to evaluate the fertility QoL of infertile women and to examine whether resilience moderates the association of infertility-related stress with fertility QoL. Methods This cross-sectional study was conducted in northeast of China from December 2017 to February 2018. Out of 559 women outpatients with infertility, 498 (89.1%) completed self-reported questionnaires including the FertiQoL Scale, Fertility Problem Inventory (FPI) and Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC). Hierarchical multiple regression analysis and simple slope analysis were applied to explore the influencing factors related to fertility QoL as well as to examine the moderating effect of resilience on the association of infertility-related stress with fertility QoL. Results The mean FertiQoL score was 64.54 ± 16.90 among the participants. Household monthly income and causes of infertility were significantly related to fertility QoL. In addition, infertility-related stress was negatively related to fertility QoL, and resilience was positively associated with fertility QoL, explaining 36.3% of the variance. Resilience moderated the association of infertility-related stress with fertility QoL. Specifically, the effect of infertility-related stress on fertility QoL varied by low(1 SD below the mean, B = - 0.496, β = - 0.714, P < 0.001), mean (B = - 0.293, β = - 0.422, P < 0.001) and high (1 SD above the mean, B = - 0.090, β = - 0.130, P < 0.001) levels of resilience. The higher resilience was, the weaker the effect of infertility-related stress on fertility QoL was. Conclusions Overall, women with infertility in China had relatively low FertiQoL scores. Resilience influenced the association of infertility-related stress with fertility QoL. Infertile patients’ psychological status must be addressed and adequate resilience-based interventions such as mindfulness-based skills should be provided to improve fertility QoL of women with infertility