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

ABSTRACT

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