Quality of life and its influencing factors of advanced schistosomiasis patients in Qingpu District,Shanghai / 中国血吸虫病防治杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To assess the quality of life(QOL)of advanced schistosomiasis patients,and understand its influenc-ing factors. Methods A questionnaire survey was carried out by using WHOQOL-BREF,and the information of demography, family,illness,health status,and health service was collected. Results Among the 217 advanced patients,the average age was (75.33±6.94)years,the ratio of male to female was 2∶5,89.86%of them were farmers,75.58%were illiterate or semi-illiterate, and 88.94%belonged to the splenomegaly type. Totally 61.29%of the cases had the scores over average for the overall QOL,but the scores for the health and well-being were lower. There were a significant difference among the average scores of different do-mains of QOL(χ2 =23.46,P<0.01). Both the year of being diagnosed and clinical classification was not associated with the scores of QOL. Regularly taking physical activities was significantly associated with each of all the 4 domains. The factors such as onset of acute disease in 2 weeks,taking therapeutic pills daily,marital status,age,etc. impacted the specific domains of QOL. The overall QOL and the 4 domains of the patients were at medium level;meanwhile,the score of physiological domain was lower than the scores of the other 3 domains. Conclusions The QOL(s)of advanced schistosomiasis patients in Qingpu District are rel-atively good. It is important to provide effective community health services and encourage the patients to take part in tempered sports or physical activities in order to keep their normal activities of daily living.