Evaluation of the relation between poverty and health-related quality of life in the people over 60 years-old in the district 4 of Tehran municipality in 2009-2010

As the articles in recent years well indicate, more than all other factors, social determinants of health are involved in people's health status and quality of life [QOL]. Among these social factors, the economic one is introduced as the main factor determining health status. This study was designed to evaluate the impact of poverty on QOL. The health-related QOL of poor people under coverage of a public charity institution [group 1] was compared with the QOL of ordinary people [group2] using the SF-36 questionnaire. The QOL scores in the groups 1 and 2 were analyzed by Mann-Whitney, Kruskal -Wallis tests and logistic regression using the SPSS 16.00 software. A total of 400 individuals were studied. The results showed significant differences between the two groups in the QOL measures of SF-36, except for physical and mental health measures [P<0.001]. With regard to the adverse consequence of the Physical Component Scale [PCS], employing logistic regression analysis, statistically significant relationships between the two groups in the demographic characteristics, except age and marital status, were found. For the adverse consequence of Mental Component Scale [MCS], logistic regression showed statistically significant differences between the two groups in the demographic characteristics, except for age. The findings indicate that poverty diminishes the QOL in most aspects; however, considering all aspects of QOL is necessary to promote the individuals' health

[Health-related quality of life in low income people in 4th estate of Tehran]

Objective: To understand different dimensions of quality of life in low income people of 4th estate of Tehran in comparisons with the general public at the same age in order to improve health related quality of life and provide more help for these people

Methods: Methods: This was a cohort study with a sample of 200 people in poverty and 200 people selected as a control group. Quality of life was assessed using SF-36 questionnaire .Data on age, sex, marriage state, educational level and occupational level collected

Results: Comparing quality of between low- income people and control group showed that low- income people had worse conditions in physical functioning, role physical, bodily pain, vitality, role emotional, physical and mental component scores. Both men and women in poverty group had worse condition in all dimensions except for general health and mental health

Conclusion: The finding showed that people in poverty status suffered from a poor health and quality of life