The burden of illness of severe nausea and vomiting of pregnancy in the United States.

Abstract

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. 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. 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. 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.