• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.650-659
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• 2021

This study was conducted to identify the factors affecting the health-related quality of life(HRQOL) in married women according to their occupations. The study subjects were 2,555 married women in the 7th National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, and the SPSS 25.0 program was used for data analysis. The results are as follows. In the case of office workers, the age, household income, obesity etc., were significant factors, and the explanatory power was 8.9% (p<.001). In the case of service workers, the age, education level, weight control, subjective health, and stress were significant factors, and the explanatory power was 16.1% (p<.001). In the case of simple labor, the age, education level, number of household members, hypertension, obesity, weight change, weight control, sitting time, subjective health, subjective body image, and stress were significant factors, and the explanatory power was 24.7(p<.001). In the case of unemployed, the age, household income, number of household members, number of days taking a walk per week, sleeping time, sitting time, subjective health, subjective body image, and stress were significant factors, and the explanatory power was 29.9% (p<.001). In the future, when developing a program to improve the HRQOL, the individual management programs considering the factors affecting the HRQOL according to occupation should be applied.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.16
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• pp.6913-6917
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• 2015

Background: Due to the rapid progress of industrialization, the expansion of the nuclear family, and an increase in women's social activities, the burden of care of cancer patients has increased, so that all family members are now involved in care. We compared the health-related quality of life (HRQOL) between members of families of cancer patients (hereafter, cancer families) and members of cancer-free families (non-cancer families). Materials and Methods: The data were from the Community Health Survey (2012). The study population included respondents at least 30 years of age. Data were adjusted for the following covariates: sex, age, education, marital status, household income, economic activity, household type, chronic disease, and perceived health status. Frequency analysis, analyses of variance, and multiple linear regression analysis were performed. Results: Among 163,495 respondents, 3,406 (2.1%) were part of a cancer family and 160,089 (97.9%) were part of a non-cancer family. Cancer families had lower EQ-5D scores than non-cancer families. However, by subgroup, the scores had significant association between cancer and non-cancer families only for females and for those who worked. Conclusions: There was a significant relationship between HRQOL scores and being a family member of a cancer patient. This indicates that the responsibility for care has been extended to the entire family, not only the primary caregiver.

• The Journal of Korean Medicine
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.41-52
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• 2016

Objectives: There are no studies which have investigated the health related quality of life(HRQOL) about stroke patients according to the medical care utilization behavior by longitudinal analysis. The purpose of this study is to analyze the quality of life(QOL) and quality adjusted life years(QALYs) of stroke patients of western and combined treatment group by longitudinal analysis. Methods: A retrospective cohort study was conducted among 37 new patients who initiated diagnosis with stroke in 2009 from Korea Health Panel Data. We analyzed the HRQOL of stroke patients and calculated the QALYs after medical use initiation for up to 3 years according to the medical care utilization behavior. Results: Overall, the quality of life of stroke patients was lowered somewhat from 0.8431 to 0.7864 in 2009~2012. Western treatment group was appeared slightly declined in from 0.8527 to 0.8231 and combined treatment group was shown to be falling from 0.8173 to 0.6875. The QALYs of total patients were calculated 2.3654 and western treatment group were 2.4436, combined treatment group were 2.1542 during the 4 year period. The difference of QALYs between two groups was 0.2894 QALYs. Conclusions: Although there was a small difference in QALYs of the two groups, it is not certain that the difference is come from medical care utilization behavior. Further studies should be needed to confirm the relation of the medical care utilization behavior and quality of life by considering severity of the stroke.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.276-285
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• 2015

The aim of this study was to identify the impact of community factors on the community-level Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQOL) in Korea. This was a cross-sectional study conducted in 2012 using secondary data(n=209) of the Korean Statistical Information Service. The framework was based on community factors provided by the International Council of Science (ICSU) and community factors were categorized based on six aspects. Multiple regression was applied to community factors depending on the community EQ-5D index. Smoking rate, "Good" self-rated health rate, water and wastewater coverage rate, and financial independency rate were significantly and positively associated with the EQ-5D score. Net migration rate(more move out than move in), obesity rate, unmet needed health care rate, and community type(rural than urban) were significantly and negatively associated with the EQ-5D score. This study identifies association for the impact of community factors on the community-level HRQOL and can provide useful evidence for development of community health promotion policies.

• Physical Therapy Korea
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.233-240
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• 2020

Background: Cross-culturally adapted questionnaires may not be comparable to their original version. Objects: To examine concurrent validity of two health-related quality of life (HRQOL) instruments for the Korean versions of EuroQOL-5 Dimension (EQ-5D) and the abbreviated version of the World Health Organization Quality of Life (WHOQOL-BREF) instrument. Methods: A total of 139 cancer survivors from two rehabilitation institutes was recruited. All participants were registered for palliative rehabilitation care. Both instruments were concurrently administered by health care providers following the second bout of the rehabilitation cares. Rasch partial credit model and Spearman's correlation analysis were used to investigate: 1) dimensionality, 2) hierarchical item difficulty, and 3) concurrent validity using correlations between two instruments. Results: For the WHOQOL-BREF, all items except negative feeling, pain, dependence of medical aid, were found to be acceptable, while all items of EQ-5D were acceptable. There was an evidence of negative correlations between EQ-5D and 4 domains of WHOQOL-BREF. Two correlations were strong (EQ-5D vs. physical health domain, ρ = -0.610, 95% CI = -0.716 to -0.475) and moderate (EQ-5D vs. psychosocial domain, ρ = -0.402, 95% CI = -0.546 to -0.236). Other two correlations were weak (EQ-5D vs. social relationship and environmental domains, ρ = -0.242, 95% CI = -0.401 to -0.075 and ρ = -0.364, 95% CI = -0.514 to -0.207, respectively). Item difficulty calibrations of the two measurements were ranged from -0.84 to 0.86 for the EQ-5D and -1.07 to 1.06 for the WHOQOL-BREF. Conclusion: The study provides some supports for the concurrent validity of the two Korean versions of HRQOL instrument, with evidences of weak to strong correlations between the EQ-5D and four domains of the WHOQOL-BREF applied to various cancer survivors. Additionally, the cancer survivors appeared to have more of a tendency to view the EQ-5D items as being slightly more challenging than the WHOQOL-BREF items.

• Korean Journal of Health Education and Promotion
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.73-83
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• 2015

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to identify the effects of sleep quality and occupational stress on health-related quality of life among a university's security workers. Methods: 128 security workers voluntarily participated in the study. The survey asked demographic, health related, job related factors, the Korean Occupational Stress Scale Short Form(KOSS-SF), sleep quality questionnaire, and 12-Short Form Health Survey version 2.0(SF-12v2). The data were analyzed by using descriptive analysis, t-test, ANOVA, multiple linear regression, and multiple logistic regression. Results: The interrupted rest time was significantly negatively related to occupational stress. The occupational stress significantly affected sleep quality. The significant variable affecting Physical Component Score(PCS) and Mental Component Score(MCS) was sleep quality and occupational stress, respectively. Conclusions: HRQOL was founded to be affected by occupational stress and sleep disorder among the security workers. Based on this study, we suggest that the management of both occupational stress and sleep quality is crucial to improve the HRQOL.

• Journal of Society of Preventive Korean Medicine
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.15-26
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• 2012

Objective : Only a few studies have investigated the life expectance and health related quality of life (HRQOL) about stroke patients. The purpose of this study is to analyze the life expectancy, preference based quality of life(QOL) and quality adjusted life years(QALYs) of stroke patients. Methods : We used data of 10,533 adults from 4th Korean national health and nutritional examination survey 2009 for evaluating HRQOL of stroke patients. We also analyzed the life expectancy for stroke patients using life table from national public health data. Finally we calculated the QALYs with and without stroke conditions and assumed the difference of QALYs. Results : The mean age of stroke patients was assumed to be 65. Lower income and less educated groups were prone to be exposed to the stroke conditions. Common comorbidities of stroke patients were ischemic heart attack, hypertension, diabetes and hyperlipidemia. The proportions of participants who reported problems in each of the five EQ-5D dimensions increased significantly at chronic stroke group. Participants with chronic stroke conditions had an almost 6-fold higher risk of impaired health utility(the lowest quartile of EQ-5D utility score) compared with non stroke participants, after adjustment of age, gender, income, education, comorbidity variables. The differences of life expectancy and QALYs between non-stroke and stroke group from the age of 65 till death were assumed to be 0.767 year and 3.103 QALYs. Conclusions : Although the authors analyzed the affecting factors of QOL and assumed the differences of life expectance and QALYs about stroke patients using domestic national data and statistic references, well designed cohort studies should be needed to prove the causal effects of affecting factors and to assume more correct QALY differences.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.265-274
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• 2021

The Purpose of this paper was to explore the effect of hearing impairment on HRQOL in Korean elders. We carry out a cross-sectional analysis using nationally representative data from the KNHANES, 2016-2018. The survey was conducted on 4,754 elders who responded to questions about hearing impairment. Quality of life was compared between hearing impaired elders and elders with no hearing impairment using the t-test and chi-square test, and factors related to quality of life were analyzed by multivariate logistic regression using SPSS version 22.0. There was significant difference in quality of life between hearing impaired elders and elders with no hearing impairment. Walking exercise were identified as factors related to quality of life in elders with hearing impairment, while marriage status, walking exercise and limited movement were found to be related to quality of life among elders with no hearing impairment. In order to improve the HRQOL of elders with hearing impairment, multidisciplinary efforts and development of educational programs are required.

• Physical Therapy Korea
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.32-40
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• 2023

Background: Equating is a statistical procedure used to create a common measurement scale across two instruments. Item-level information should be taken into consideration so that scores can communicate interchangeably across the instruments. Objects: To investigate a common measurement scale across two health-related quality of life questionnaires (HRQOL) applied to various cancer survivors who underwent palliative care in healthcare institutions. Methods: A total of 139 cancer survivors who underwent palliative care were recruited from two rehabilitation hospitals and an oriental medicine hospital. Participants consisted of various cancer survivors who presented to the sites for palliative care. They were asked to fill out Korean versions of the World Health Organization Quality of Life (WHOQOL-BREF) and EuroQOL-5 dimension (EQ-5D) questionnaires following the palliative care. For the item level comparison, the Rasch rating scale model was used to investigate how participants regarded individual test items of two instruments in relation to item difficulty calibrations. Results: All items except the three items fit the Rasch model. One item (anxiety/depression) of the EQ-5D and two items (dependence on medical aids and negative feelings) of the WHOQOL-BREF are misfit. The WHOQOL-BREF targets the survivors well, while the EQ-5D is able to target the survivors with lower HRQOL levels with some ceiling effects. By inspecting the item difficulty calibrations of the two instruments, five items of the WHOQOL-BREF are selected as common items in relation to the EQ-5D. These five items are considered compatible with each other. Differential item functioning (DIF) analysis reveals that the healthcare item of the WHOQOL-BREF vs the self-care item of the EQ-5D exhibits significant DIF. Conclusion: Findings suggest that one paired item should be taken into consideration when equating the WHOQOL-BREF and the EQ-5D applied to cancer survivors who underwent palliative care.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.13 no.5
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• pp.2189-2198
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• 2012

This study was designed to measure the difference in health-related quality of life (HRQOL) among social classes and explore the factors that may explain it. Study subjects were 7,992 Korean adults aged 20-69 from the 4th (2007-2009) Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys data. We described mean value of EQ-5D index as a HRQOL by class and performed hierarchical multiple regression analysis to find the factors. The result was as follows. In the distribution of EQ-5D index level among social classes, new middle class (class II) had the highest score (0.966 in men and 0.955 in women); upper and middle-upper class (class I) 0.965 in men and 0.936 in women; working class (class IV) 0.958 in men and 0.936 in women; old middle class (class III) 0.955 in men and 0.932 in women; low class (class VI) 0.941 in men and 0.908 in women; and rural self-management class (class V) the lowest score (0.918 in men and 0.866 in women). In men, chronic disease, job stress, education and income level were found to make the difference in the health-related quality of life among social classes; in women, those factors and health behavior explained the difference. In conclusion, the lower social class has lower HRQOL. Except for education and income level, chronic disease may be the major factor to explain the difference in the health-related quality of life among social classes.