Iranian Journal of

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Background & Objectives: For those with a chronic illness, suffering may result not only from physical limitations, but also from the psychosocial consequences of having a chronic condition. Therefore, simply measuring physical health is not enough anymore. It is necessary to evaluate quality of life as an important clinical outcome in these patients. We conducted the present study to measure quality of life (QoL) in multiple sclerosis (MS) patients and its predictors in comparison with the general population in Tehran, using a generic and overall QoL instrument, the WHOQOL-BREF (World Health Organization Quality of Life-BREIF). This questionnaire comprises four domains including physical health, mental health, social relationships, and environmental health. For each domain, scores range from 4 to 20, higher scores corresponding to a more favorable QOL.
Methods: This study was of cross-sectional type and involved 145 selected systematically patients registered in the Iranian Multiple Sclerosis Society. The WHOQOL-Questionnaire was filled in for these patients through telephone interviews. The results were compared with quality of life scores from the general population obtained from a population-based study in Tehran. Multiple regression was used for data analysis.
Results: The response rate was 97% 73.8% of participants were female, the mean age of participants was 36.5 (SD = 10.4) years, and the mean years of their formal education was 12.5 (SD=3.6). Mean scores for physical health, psychological health, social relationship and environmental health were 11.5 (SD=3.2), 11.8 (SD=3.2), 12.7 (SD=3.1), and 11.5 (SD=2.7), respectively. In comparison with the general population, the patients' scores in all domains were significantly lower than in the general population. Severity of disease and education level had a relationship with domain scores in regression analysis.
Conclusions: The WHOQOL-BREF questionnaire can discriminate between these patients’ quality of life and that of the general population and show the effect of disease severity and demographic variables on quality of life. Therefore the questionnaire can be used in this group of patients, although it may be necessary to add some specific questions to make the tool more sensitive in evaluating quality of life from a clinical perspective. Educational interventions are recommended to improve quality of life in this group of patients.

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Background & Objectives: Nowadays, human values for example quality of life has important place to be considered as health index along with other measurements like morbidity and mortality indexes. This study intended to compare the quality of life for residents living in apartment’s flats more than 15 years with residents living in non-apartment housing in Shiraz.
Methods: The World Health Organization Quality of Life (WHOQOL_BREF) standard questionnaire was completed by participants. This population was chosen by a multi-stage sampling method in Shiraz city. Type of living accommodation, physical, psychological, social, and environmental health factors were adjusted in the linear model.
 Results: The mean score of health aspects in people who lived in apartment vs non apartment living were: physical 13.57 and 16.41, psychological 10.71and 14.87, social 8.57and 13.84 and in environmental 13.59 and 10.18 respectively, however after adjustment for gender, education, marital status, age, job, family size, income, type of disease (chronic, acute, chronic- acute), possession of house and area of house, changed to 14.41 for physical and 15.61, psychological 12.6 and 14.47, social 8.74 and 13.72 and environmental 15.42 and 9.23 (P<0.0001).
Conclusion: The results of this study show that the health of apartment-living residents even after adjustment of some other influencing factors, in major of domains was less than non apartment-living residents which indicating this issue should be considered in urban-living health.