Assessing the Quality of Life of Persons with Physical Disabilities in Residential Institutionalized Centers, Thailand

Abstract

The objective of this cross-sectional study was to assess the health-related quality of life among persons with physical disability. The quantitative study was conducted with 200 physically disabled respondents. Data were collected during the period from September to October 2015. Data were collected by face-to-face interviews using a constructed pre-tested questionnaire and one part adapted from WHOQOL-BREF. Data were analyzed by applying descriptive statistics (frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation, range and median) and inferential statistics (Pearson correlation, Independent t-test and one–way ANOVA) to examine the relationship between health-related quality of life and socio-demographic characteristics, degree of physical disability, and accessibility to health care services. Statistical significance was set as p<0.05. In conclusion, a moderate level of health related quality of life was shown among respondents. The result showed that females living with physical disability had similar quality of life than males. When analyzed by one-way ANOVA, with statistical significance at the level of p>0.05, gender, age, employment, religion, degree of physical disability are factors that did not show significant association with QoL of the study population. Education and financial accessibility showed an association between health related quality of life. After the analysis the following conclusions could be made: the QoL of people with physical disabilities is associated mostly with education and financial accessibility. Keywords: residential institutionalized centers, physical disability, religion , accessibility to health care services, health-related quality of life, independent living, Thailand