JNSS 2010, 1(1-2):98-101 | DOI: 10.32725/jnss.2010.011

DEPENDENCE OF QUALITY OF LIFE INDEX ON SOCIO-DEMOGRAPHIC VARIABLES IN PATIENTS WITH ANKYLOSING SPONDYLITIS

Marek Zeman

University of South Bohemia, Faculty of Health and Social Studies, Department of Clinical Branches, České Budějovice, Czech Republic

Purpose - To identify the Quality of Life (QoL) in subjects diagnosed with Ankylosing Spondylitis (AS) and find a possible association between the QoL index and selected socio-demographic variables (sex, age, marital status, degree of impairment with AS).
Methods - A sample of 181 patients with AS who underwent a complete spa treatment in Třeboň Spa in 2008. The SEIQoL tests were conducted and the data from the respondents' medical documentation analysed. The Spearman's rank correlation coefficients between the selected variables and the QoL index were surveyed. Our hypotheses suggested a statistically significant dependence of the QoL index and ranked variables.
Results - The average value of the QoL index found in the respondents was 61.0. The Spearman's correlation coefficients were not higher than 0.2 nor lower than -0.2. No statistically significant dependence of the QoL index on socio-demographic variables was found. The hypotheses have not been proved.
Conclusions - The findings were surprising. The respondents, in their subjective views, did not associate the quality of their life even with the degree of AS. It may result in the idea that the methodology of investigation, especially the HRQoL concept is based on the wrong assumptions. It claims that the determining correspondence between QoL and health is primarily the dependence of the QoL on the state of health.

Keywords: Quality of life (QoL); SEIQoL concept; Ankylosing Spondylitis (AS); subjective; correlation

Received: December 16, 2009; Accepted: February 8, 2010; Published: March 1, 2010  Show citation