Quality of Life(QOL), Life Satisfaction, and Its Determinents of the Physically Disabled in Taegu City

Lee, Youg Sook; Kim, Keon Yeop; Park, Ki Soo; Son, Jae Hee; Lee, Jong Young

Abstract

In order to investigate the factors influencing QOL and life satisfaction of the physically disabled, the author interviewed, by using structuralized questionnaire, 440 individuals among the physically disabled who were participated in Health Examination from April to July, 1997. The questionnaire consisted of the general characteristics(sex, age, marital status, family number, etc), the Reintegration to Normal Living Index(RNLI) to assess QOL, and the single item of five-likert scale to evaluate life satisfaction. The means of RNLI were 16.2+/-4.8 in total score, 12.2+/-3.4 in daily functioning and 4.0+/-2.1 in perception of self. The respondents were less reintegrated toward social activities and relationships than impairments or disabilities. While the satisfied group was 47.3%, the dissatisfied group was 52.7%. As the results of multiple regression and logistic regression analysis, the significant predictors of QOL were age, education, job, grade of disability and subjective health status. The life satisfaction were related to economic status, job and subjective health status. To improve QOL and life satisfaction of the physically disabled, it is important that we improve their basic socioeconomic status by getting a job through rehabilitation education and induce them to have positive self-assessment by extending the opportunity of social participation.