كيفيت زندگي همسران جانبازان با قطع عضو هر دو اندام تحتاني

Quality of life in spouses of war related bilateral lower limb amputees

Background and Objective: Family members play a major role in providing care giving assistance to persons with disability. The aim of this study was to assess health related quality of life in war related bilateral lower limb amputeesʹ spouses. Materials & Methods: A group consisting of 234 female were surveyed. The 36-items short-form health survey (SF-36) questionnaire was used to measure quality of life. Demographic data was collected using another questionnaire. Scientific-Research Journal of Shahed University Sixteenth Year, No. 84 December, January 2009-2010 Received: 2009/10/3 Last revised: 2010/1/6 Accepted: 2010/1/18 Results: The average age of the amputeeʹs spouses were 39.5 ± 6.3 years. More than half of the subjects were housewife 92.7% (n=217) and 7.3 % (n=13) were employed. 27.8% of spouses (n=65) had morbidity. The highest and lowest mean scores in the study population were found for physical function (76.62±21.88) and bodily pain (53.58±24.96) respectively. The quality of life of the spouses in four domain were significantly lower than Iranian female normal population (p<0.05). Unemployment, lower education in caregiver and history of hospitalization in survivors, were significantly accompanied with poorer health related quality of life in the spouses. Conclusion: The findings demonstarate that health related quality of life in caregivers was poor. Attention should be paid to caregiversʹ health and well being. By identifying the burden that a caregiver experiences, interventions can be targeted more accurately to support family care giving.