Investigation of the associations of demographic factors with quality of life in the population in Attica, Greece, in the period of financial crisis

Introduction: The current financial crisis has affected the daily life of citizens. Due to the unemployment, job insecurity, stress and many other factors, population health-related quality of life (HRQoL) is affected. Persons in higher socioeconomic status tend to have higher HRQoL. Educational level, age, gender, low income, marital status and other demographic factors are associated with quality of life. Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted using convenience sampling of both employed and unemployed individuals in Attica, Greece, population from February 2014 to March 2015. To evaluate HRQoL SF-36v2 questionnaire was used. Statistical program SPSS 21.0 was used for data analysis. Results: The studied population consisted of 1049 people (52.7% female and 47.3% male) with an average age of 37.1 years and standard deviation of 11.8. 91% were Greek, 36.8% had high school graduates and 62.4 were employed. In univariate analysis, work status, educational level, age, low income, parenthood, chronic illness and nationality were found to be related to the score of the participants at least one dimension. In linear regression analysis, there are statistically significant correlations between educational level, work status, chronic illness and age with HRQoL of the participants. Conclusions: Improvements of HRQoL should be directed towards chronic illness prevention, lifelong education, better information about health issues, the improvements of access to health services of elderly (vulnerable population in general) and unemployment reduction. HRQoL is not only a health policy issue but mainly an economic and social policy matter.