title: Evaluation of the general health of the infertile couples.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The prevalence of infertility is variable between 5-30% around the world. In Iran, more than 2 million couples suffer from infertility. Infertility causes depression, anxiety, social isolation and sexual dysfunction.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  This descriptive study was undertaken to determine general health in infertile couples.
  
  
  METHODS
  One hundred and fifty infertile couples attending Yazd Research and Clinical Center for Infertility were randomly selected during March till September 2009. The GHQ-28 questionnaires were completed by researchers, based on face to face interview. It contains 28 items, which have been divided to four sub- items. The results come out by scoring the patients answer from 0 to 84. All data were analyzed by Chi-square and t-test in SPSS software.
  
  
  RESULTS
  GHQ scores of all sub-scales and total in women were more than men, which shows general health condition in women is worse than men. There was no relation between the duration of infertility and general health scores.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study suggests that the infertility has significant effect (p=0.001) on health situation of infertile couples, especially infertile women. They are at risk of somatic symptoms (p=0.0001), social dysfunction (p=0.0001) and severe depression (p=0.0001). GHQ could provided help and support in order to improve the health situation of infertile couples.
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Education, Faculty of Health, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, Iran.
authors.forename: Mohammad Hossein
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Baghiani Moghadam
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Consultation Center, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, Iran.
authors.forename: Amir Hosein
authors.initials: AH
authors.lastname: Aminian
authors.affiliation: Research and Clinical Centre for Infertility, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, Iran.
authors.forename: Ali Mohammad
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Abdoli
authors.affiliation: Department of General health, Faculty of Health, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, Iran.
authors.forename: Najmeh
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Seighal
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Genetics, Research and Clinical Centre for Infertility, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, Iran.
authors.forename: Hosein
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Falahzadeh
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Genetics, Research and Clinical Centre for Infertility, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, Iran.
authors.forename: Nasrin
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Ghasemi
keywords: GHQ-28; Infertile couples; Sub- scales of GHQ