Detecting anxiety and depression among infertile patients undergoing IVF-ET using the fertility quality of life and the patient health questionnaire-4 tools.

Λεπτομέρειες βιβλιογραφικής εγγραφής
Τίτλος:	Detecting anxiety and depression among infertile patients undergoing IVF-ET using the fertility quality of life and the patient health questionnaire-4 tools.
Συγγραφείς:	Lin CW; Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, National Cheng Kung University Hospital, College of Medicine, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, 704, Taiwan., Lee YH; Institute of Clinical Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, College of Medicine, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, 701, Taiwan., Yang CY; Institute of Clinical Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, College of Medicine, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, 701, Taiwan., Lin TC; Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, National Cheng Kung University Hospital, College of Medicine, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, 704, Taiwan., Wu YH; Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, National Cheng Kung University Hospital, College of Medicine, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, 704, Taiwan.; Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Chi Mei Medical Center, Tainan, 710, Taiwan., Ou HT; Institute of Clinical Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, College of Medicine, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, 701, Taiwan. huangtz@mail.ncku.edu.tw.; School of Pharmacy, College of Medicine, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, 701, Taiwan. huangtz@mail.ncku.edu.tw., Wu MH; Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, National Cheng Kung University Hospital, College of Medicine, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, 704, Taiwan. mhwu68@mail.ncku.edu.tw.; Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, College of Medicine, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, 701, Taiwan. mhwu68@mail.ncku.edu.tw.
Συλλογικό Έργο:	Taiwan HPA FertiQoL Research Task Force
Πηγή:	BMC psychology [BMC Psychol] 2026 Apr 07; Vol. 14 (1). Date of Electronic Publication: 2026 Apr 07.
Τύπος έκδοσης:	Journal Article
Γλώσσα:	English
Στοιχεία περιοδικού:	Publisher: BioMed Central Country of Publication: England NLM ID: 101627676 Publication Model: Electronic Cited Medium: Internet ISSN: 2050-7283 (Electronic) Linking ISSN: 20507283 NLM ISO Abbreviation: BMC Psychol Subsets: MEDLINE
Imprint Name(s):	Original Publication: London : BioMed Central, [2013]-
Ιατρικοί όροι (MeSH):	Quality of Life/psychology , Fertilization in Vitro/psychology , Depression/diagnosis , Anxiety/diagnosis , Embryo Transfer/psychology , Infertility/psychology , Infertility/therapy , Patient Health Questionnaire, Humans ; Female ; Adult ; Taiwan ; Psychometrics ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Male
Περίληψη:	PURPOSE: Infertility is associated with considerable psychosocial distress, yet many affected individuals lack formal diagnosis or treatment. The Fertility Quality of Life (FertiQoL) tool is widely used to assess quality of life in infertile populations, while the Patient Health Questionnaire-4 (PHQ-4) is a validated screening tool for anxiety and depression. This study investigated whether FertiQoL could be applied as a screening measure to identify high-risk individuals during in vitro fertilization–embryo transfer (IVF-ET). METHODS: This study enrolled participants (320 patients with 444 valid responses) between February and July 2023 across 11 assisted reproductive technology institutions in Taiwan. FertiQoL was used to evaluate quality of life, and PHQ-4 was used to screen for anxiety and depression. Associations between the two measures were analyzed, and a decision tree model was applied to identify an optimal FertiQoL cutoff score for risk classification. RESULTS: FertiQoL total scores were significantly and negatively correlated with PHQ-4 outcomes (–0.531 for PHQ-2; − 0.525 for GAD-2). A cutoff FertiQoL score of 63.6 provided satisfactory performance in identifying high-risk individuals, demonstrating sensitivities and specificities of 72% and 76% for anxiety (GAD-2), and 81% and 73% for depression (PHQ-2). CONCLUSIONS: The findings support the clinical utility of FertiQoL as a standardized tool not only for quality of life assessment but also for identifying mental health risks in infertile patients.
Competing Interests:	Declarations. Ethics approval and consent to participate: The study was reviewed and approved with the exemption by the Institutional Review Board of National Cheng Kung University Hospital on May 18, 2023 (IRB Number: A-EX-112-013). Consent for publication: Not applicable. All clinical data analyzed in this study were anonymized prior to use, and no identifiable personal or clinical information of any participant is presented in this manuscript. Therefore, consent for publication was not required. Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests.
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Grant Information:	NCKUH-11303052 National Cheng Kung University Hospital
Contributed Indexing:	Investigator: CL Kuo; CL Wu; HY Yen; HC Ko; KC Chen; KS Lin; MC Chen; MH Wu; YC Mai; YY Hsu Keywords: Anxiety Disorders; Depressive Disorder; Infertility; Patient Health Questionnaire; Quality of Life
Entry Date(s):	Date Created: 20260408 Date Completed: 20260627 Latest Revision: 20260627
Update Code:	20260628
PubMed Central ID:	PMC13188597
DOI:	10.1186/s40359-026-04481-x
PMID:	41947212
Βάση Δεδομένων:	MEDLINE

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ISSN:	2050-7283
DOI:	10.1186/s40359-026-04481-x