Quality of life (QOL) among people between 30 to 60years of age with acute Arthralgia

Abstract : Introduction The commonly used measurements of health are in terms of mortality, morbidity, disability etc. However these measurements do not project the impact of disease on daily activities, quality of life of people with the disease, behavior of people, satisfaction levels of people with their disease. A measurement which gives the objective evidence of satisfaction in life lived by the people is needed which is done by measuring Quality of Life (QOL). Since QQL was not considered by the scientific world in early ages, it was described as missing measurement in health by Fallow field in 1990. One of the QOL measurement tool is the WHO-Quality of life100 (WHOQOL100) which has a brief version called WHO-BREF which could be applied internationally across cultures. This present study focuses on the QOL among people who had any joint pain or multiple joints pain and elicits their level of satisfaction regarding their health and life.Methodology This was a Cross sectional study done on 100 people between age 30 to 60 years with any joint pain or multiple joints pain withwithout swelling in the past two weeks and were relatives of patients visitingstaying at the hospital, at a rural health centre in Vellore. The Convenient sampling technique was used to obtain the sample. The study tool WHO-BREF questionnaire was administered by the interviewer. Data entry was done with Epidata and data analysis by SPSS.Results Physical health was not statistically significant on all four domain of QOL with respect to age, gender, socioeconomic status and marital status and joint pain duration. Age and marital status were found to be statistically significant by Wald chi square test with (p value0.004) (p value 0.025) respectively in social relationships domain. Socio economic status was found to be statistically significant in environmental support domain with (p value0.012).There was no statistically significant difference between people with joint pain greater than 3 years and less than three year in QOL.Discussion Further studies, national and state new policy and program initiatives needed to improve QOL among people with musculoskeletal disorders and chronic degenerative disorders.