Marital Adjustment in Patients with Chronic Viral Hepatitis versus Healthy Controls

Objective: Marital adjustment has been regarded as an important issue in chronic illnesses. Some studies have addressed the effect of viral hepatitis on patientsʹ spouses but there is still limited information on the topic. This study has compared marital adjustment in patients suffering from different stages of viral hepatitis with that of a healthy population.
Methods: In a cross-sectional study, 176 subjects were recruited and divided into three groups: group I (57 patients with chronic active hepatitis), group II (68 carriers with non-active viral hepatitis), and group III (51 healthy subjects). Patients and controls were selected through systematic sampling from Tehran Hepatitis Center and Tehran Blood Transfusion Organization respectively. The overall score and the scores of subscale items including Dyadic Consensus, Affection Expression, Dyadic Satisfaction and Dyadic Cohesion were compared in the groups using Revised Dyadic Adjustment Scale (RDAS).
Results: There was no significant difference between the overall RDAS score, and its subscales including Dyadic Satisfaction, Dyadic Consensus, Affection Expression and Dyadic Cohesion among the study groups (p>0.05).
Conclusions: It appears that marital adjustment in Iranian patients with chronic active hepatitis and carriers with non-active viral hepatitis are similar to healthy subjects. Thus, dyadic support may act as a buffer on the negative impact of the disease development on the familial lives of the patients.