ARTICLE INFO

Article Type

Descriptive & Survey Study

Authors

Naderi   A. (1)
Sedighi   Sh. (2)
Roshanaei   Gh. (*)
Ahmadpanah   M. (3)
Rostampour   F. (4)
Asadi   Z. (5)






(*) “Modeling of Noncommunicable Diseases Research Center” and “Biostatistics and Epidemiology Department, Public Health School”, Hamadan University of Medical Sciences, Hamadan, Iran
(1) Student Research Center, Health Faculty, Hamadan University of Medical Sciences, Hamadan, Iran
(2) Student Research Center, Nursing & Midwifery Faculty, Hamadan University of Medical Sciences, Hamadan, Iran
(3) “Behavioral Disorders & Drug Abuse Research Center” and “Psychiatry Department, Medical Faculty”, Hamadan University of Medical Sciences, Hamadan, Iran
(4) Student Research Center, Medical Faculty, Hamadan University of Medical Sciences, Hamadan, Iran
(5) Social Aids Department, Veterans Affairs Foundation of Hamedan, Hamedan, Iran

Correspondence

Address: Biostatistics and Epidemiology Department, Public Health School, Hamadan University of Medical Sciences, Shahid Fahmideh Avenue, Opposite the Mardom Park, Hamadan, Iran
Phone: +98 (81) 38380090
Fax: +98 (81) 38380090
gh.roshanaei@umsha.ac.ir

Article History

Received:  March  15, 2016
Accepted:  July 24, 2016
ePublished:  August 31, 2016

BRIEF TEXT


Life quality is a term used to evaluate individual quality of life and social life and involves different social, cognitive, physical and emotional dimensions [1].

… [2-11]. Since caring of chronic patients increases the physical damages, depression, stress and anxiety in the caregivers, attention to complications of caregivers in their caring of disabilities or chronic patients is very important; The physical and psychological health of the caregivers can be effective on the health, welfare, and success in the rehabilitation of the patients [12]. … [13-27].

The aim of this study was to evaluate the life quality of amputees in the city of Hamedan.

This is a cross-sectional study.

This study was conducted in 2014 on the amputee veterans in Hamedan city.

The information of 140 amputee veterans sponsored by the Foundation of Martyrs and Veterans Affairs in Hamedan City in 2014, was collected by census sampling.

In order to evaluate health-related quality of life, the two part-questionnaire was used. The first part is related to demographic information of patients including age, education, occupation and income. The second part of the questionnaire was related to the life quality that 36 items Short Form Health Survey (SF-36) was used. This questionnaire includes 36 questions and measures 8 dimensions of life quality including general health (with 6 questions), physical health (with 10 questions), psychological health (with 6 questions), social activities (with 2 questions), bodily pain (with 2 questions), the role of physical dimension in role playing (with 4 questions), the role of mental health in role playing (with 3 questions), and vitality (with 3 questions). In this questionnaire, the scores for each related domain is 0 to 100 that the score of zero indicates the worst situation and the score of 100 shows the best condition [4]. Validity and reliability of the SF-36 questionnaire in Iran, have been studied. The reliability of the questionnaire in Iran, in all domains is between 0.65 and 0.90 [28]. The domains of disabilities include damage to eyes, hands, feet, psychiatric, and internal disabilities. Data analysis was performed using SPSS 16 software. At first, normality of data was investigated using Kolmogorov-Smirnov test that normality was not in any of the variables. Therefore, Kruskal- Wallis and Man-Whitney tests were used for investigating the effect of demographic variables on the life quality of the people.

140 amputee veterans` wives were investigated. In the studied people, mental health had the highest score and general health was the lowest score (Table 1). The mean age of the participants was 45.79±6.06. The age of most people was in range of 40 to 50 years. Most of the participants, were low literate, housewives, and middle economic status. The highest rate of injury among veterans was in the leg and the lowest rate was in internal organs. Also, the highest incidence of physical health in the veterans` wives were related to the hypertension and neurological diseases and the lowest was related to respiratory illness. The variables of education level, occupation and economic status had on significant effect on life quality (p>0.05). However the effect of age and injury type was effective in life quality (p<0.05). Although the mean score of life quality in spouses who were suffering from different diseases was lower compared to the spouses without these diseases, the mean of life quality was not significantly different in all studied diseases except heart diseases (p>0.05, Table 2). Also, in cases where there was no significant correlation between total life quality and variables, the relationship between these variables with eight dimensions of life quality including general health, physical health, mental health, social function, bodily pain, the role of physical health in the role playing, the role of mental health in the psychological health and vitality was insignificant.

… [29-32] Illness or disability was seen in some of veterans` wives that had no significant effect on the life quality of these participants. The study by Khani et al. [26] and Rukwong et al. [33] showed that the mean scores of life quality of people has no significant relationship with different underlying diseases [34-37].

The increase of awareness and understanding of caregivers in different ways can have profound and important influence on the caregivers of veterans that can improve the caregivers` and veterans` life quality.

One of the limitations of this study was the limited researches conducted on the life quality of the veterans` families. Also, the population of the study included only amputee veterans` wives of Hamedan city that there was no the possibility of generalizing the results to other cities and other veterans groups such as chemical veterans. Also, in this study, there was no possibility of using other tools for collecting data such as interview except questionnaire.

The life quality of amputee veterans` wives qualities in Hamedan city is low and even the most of life quality that is related to mental health is at low level as well.

The Deputy of Research and Technology of Hamedan University of Medical Health and Sciences is appreciated.

Non-declared

This study has the confirmation from the ethics committee of Hamedan University of Medical Sciences.

This study has been conducted with the financial support from Hamedan University of Medical Sciences.

TABLES and CHARTS

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