Health-related Quality of Life in Patients Referred for Disability Assessment

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: To estimate the health-related quality of life (HRQOL) in patients who were referred for a disability assessment and identify the factors affecting their HRQOL. METHOD: The referral group was consisted of 117 patients who visited the rehabilitation outpatient clinic for an assessment of the disability. The non-referral group was consisted of 468 patients who visited for being treated for an illness. The control group was consisted of 410 healthy adults who had no illness. Subjects were interviewed using the questionnaire including age, sex, educational level, marital status, employment status and monthly income. The HRQOL of all subjects was measured by the Korean version of the medical outcome study 36-item short-form health survey (KSF-36). The correlation between KSF-36 score and all variables was analyzed and KSF-36 score of each group was compared with those of others. In the referral group, KSF-36 score was analyzed by all variables. RESULTS: The physical and mental component summary in the referral group were significantly lower than other groups. In the referral group, there were moderate positive correlations between monthly income and all KSF-36 scores, between employment status and physical component scores. And also there was a significant difference of almost all of component scores according to employment status and monthly income. CONCLUSION: The HRQOL of the referral group was significantly lower than those of non-referral and normal control groups. The social factors like employment status and monthly income would be affecting factors on HRQOL of the referral group.