Quality of Life among Disabled Persons- A Cross-Sectional Study in Rural Area of Dehradun District

Abstract

Background: Quality of life is a multidimensional concept. Disability has a shattering effect on the quality of life with a predominantly negative effect on “marriage, educational attainment, employment and emotional state” as it jeopardizes personal, family and social life. Assessment of “quality of life” (QOL) in disabled is essential measure to bring “disabled” to core stream of civilization. Aims & Objectives: To assess the “Quality of Life” among disabled and to determine the “association between socio-demographic” factors with the quality of life. Materials & Methods: A “community based Cross-Sectional study” was conducted in rural area of Dehradun district. Multistage random sampling technique was used to enrol 2600 people in age group of 5- 59 years for the study. Semi-structured questionnaire was used to assess the socio-demographic information while WHO-BREF questionnaire was used to assess the QOL. Results: 61(2.3%) people were found to be disabled. Among those disabled individuals 52.5% were males and 47.5 % were females. In Psychological and Environmental domain, (65.6% & 55.7%) of the study participants respectively were partially satisfied, while 60.7% of the disabled persons were dissatisfied in social domain. However, 68.9 % disabled were satisfied in physical domain. Religion was found to be strong determinant for physical, psychological and environmental domain of QOL (p-value= 0.001, 0.032 and 0.047 respectively). Socio-economic status was also found to be significantly associated with psychological domain (p-value=0.000). Conclusion: Very few individuals were found to be disabled in the present study, but religion was strongly affecting the satisfaction level among disabled. Thus, religious issues should be addressed to improve quality of life among disabled persons and there should be a holistic approach for managing disabled person.