Association between hot spring bathing and quality of life of smokers in typical hot spring areas of Guizhou Province / 上海预防医学

ABSTRACT

Objective To analyze the association between hot spring bathing and the quality of life of smokers living in typical hot spring areas of Guizhou to make suggestions on improving their quality of life. Methods The study is a cross-sectional study whose data was collected by questionnaires. The WHO Quality of Life Scale(WHO QOL-BREEF)was used to measure quality of life. Results The quality of life in the psychological domain(14.09±1.83 vs 13.79±1.82, P < 0.05)and the environmental domain(12.70±1.84 vs 12.37±1.67, P < 0.05)among smokers who took hot spring baths was significantly higher than that among those who did not. After adopting ordinary logistic regression model to adjust for other factors, for the physical domain, the odd of scoring"good"in the WHO scale in group of smokers who took hot spring baths less that once a month was 0.70 lower than that in those who took baths at least once a month(OR=0.70, 95%CI 0.54-0.91). In psychological domain, the odd of the group of smokers who did not take hot spring baths was 0.65 lower than that in those who took baths at least once a month(OR=0.65, 95%CI 0.47-0.90). And the odd of the group of smokers who bathed less than once in a month was 0.71 lower than those who bathed at least once a month(OR=0.71, 95%CI 0.54-0.92). Conclusion There is a positive relationship between hot spring bathing and quality of life, which prompts that people who smoke take hot spring baths to improve their quality of life.