How Do Obesity and Infertility Affect Stigma and Depression? A Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

Abstract Background: In traditional societies like Turkey, having children is a determinant of social status in society and family. A stigma is defined as a negative sense of social difference from others, that is, so outside the socially defined norm, it is both deeply discrediting and devalues the individual. Depression is a common health problem in infertile women because of the stressful nature of the treatment procedures, fear that treat-ments will fail, and the patient's inability to conceive. This study was conducted to examine the stigma and depression status of obese infertile women in Turkey. A cross-sectional descriptive survey was conducted in accordance with the STROBE guidelines. A fixed model in the G*Power software 3.1 was used to calculate the sample size for multiple linear regression analysis. In this cross-sectional study, the sample consisted of 161 infertile women from an infertility outpatient clinic of a university hospital in Eastern Turkey. In the analyses of the data, descriptive statistics, independent-samples t-test, one-way ANOVA, Pearson's correlation analysis, and multiple linear regression analysis were used for the normally distributed data. Results: It was determined that depression scores had a strong positive correlation with stigma scores. A multiple regression analysis was performed to explain the relationship between depression and demographic variables. In the multiple regression analysis performed to evaluate the effects of five independent variables determined to have an effect on depression scores, it was seen that the independent variables explained depression levels by 80%. Conclusion: The findings emphasized that depression and stigma are related to each other. It was determined that the depression scores of the participants increased in relation to increased self-devaluation, social stigma, age, and duration of diagnosis.