The burden of illness of severe nausea and vomiting of pregnancy in the United States.
OBJECTIVE
Our purpose was to determine the extent to which nausea and vomiting of pregnancy affects a woman's quality of life (QOL), ability to function, and health care resource use.


METHODS
We conducted an observational, multicenter, prospective cohort study by gathering data on the symptoms, QOL, and health care resource use from women who have nausea and vomiting of pregnancy.


RESULTS
All 8 domains of health measured by the Short Form-36 QOL survey were limited by patient symptoms. This limitation manifested itself as patient-time loss from work and other normal activities, unpaid caregiver-time loss from work, and use of health care resources (eg, hospitalization). All types of time loss were correlated to severity of symptoms.


CONCLUSIONS
Nausea and vomiting of pregnancy can severely reduce a woman's QOL and ability to function. The degree of limitation is associated with the severity of symptoms.
Attard
Cheryl L
CL
Innovus Research Inc, Ontario, Canada.
Kohli
Michele A
MA
Coleman
Suzanne
S
Bradley
Cathy
C
Hux
Margaret
M
Atanackovic
Gordana
G
Torrance
George W
GW
D015331:Cohort Studies; D017281:Cost of Illness; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D009325:Nausea / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy; D011247:Pregnancy; D011248:Pregnancy Complications / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy; D011446:Prospective Studies; D011788:Quality of Life; D014839:Vomiting / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy