ABSTRACT
Accidents, which are prevalent in our country, are responsible for different kinds of injuries like fractures that lead to physical and psychological complications. Psychological factors play an important role in the quality of life. Mental distress can interfere with economical, cultural and social aspects of life, which lead to impaired quality of life. Since there has not been any research about quality of life in patients with fractures, we assessed the quality of life in these patients and compared with that of the healthy people. This cross-sectional and analytical study was performed on two groups [patients and healthy subjects] each consisted of 60 persons of 20-50 years old. The patients have underwent a surgery for the fracture of femoral shaft and had no other fractures or trauma of other organs. Also none of them had a history of fracture complications during 1-2 years after surgery and they had all the criteria indicating good clinical and radiological outcomes. Two groups had comparable economical and social status. A Short Form-36 [SF-36, Farsi translation] questionnaire was filled for each person to assess the quality of life [Physical Function, Emotional Health, Pain, Vitality, Role Limitation due to Physical Health, Role Limitation Due to Psychological Health, Social Function, General Health] and the data was compared between two groups using t-test. The mean age of the patients was 34.18 years. Compared to the control group all 8 aspects of the quality of life were lower in the patients. There was no difference between males and females. The low quality of life could be due to poor follow up of the patients, payment for the surgery or lack of social support. Lack of enough rehabilitation programs after the surgery may also influence the quality of life. This shows the importance of good follow up and participation of the patients in the treatment and rehabilitation programs