Quality of life seems to be one of the important aspects to be considered in healthcare, but, in fact, this concept has not been given the due importance in the field. Here is a study which has made a significant attempt to find out the definition the professionals have given to quality of life and their views on the purpose of defining it. A chi-square test of significance was used in this study to analyze the questioner poll of a large group of professionals. The professionals subjected to this study included physicians taking care of the elderly, physiotherapists and occupational therapists in UK. The following is a description of this chi-square analysis with an explanation of what was being tested and what the results showed.
There's a specialist from your university waiting to help you with that essay.
Tell us what you need to have done now!
order now
One comes to know from reading various research studies that the concept of the meaning regarding the quality of life among the health care professionals is very limited and meager. ‘A systematic review found that fewer than 5% of randomized controlled trials reported quality of life suggesting that quality of life can be assessed by professionals rather than Patients. (Sanders, Egger, Donovan, Tallon, Frankel, 1998). Thus, this study being presented here is done on health professionals working with stroke patients. It seeks the professional’s view of the quality of life and the need of assessing the quality of life. This study shows also how the concept of the quality of life influences the efficiency of the stroke care in the betterment of their patients. The definition of the quality of life and the parameter of measuring the quality of life were sought out from the stroke professionals with the aid of questioners which was prepared from themes identified in both open-ended and closed questioned interviews with the same lot. Three groups of professionals working with the stroke patients such as Doctors, Physiotherapists and Occupational therapists were the participants of the study. Chi-squared test of significance was used to analyze the differences of opinion between the professional groups. There were 1572, which is 65%, responses out of the 2793 questioners send out. The mean age of the total sample was 38 years from which 61% of the doctors, 60% of the physiotherapists and 63% of the occupational therapists have responded.
‘How do you define the quality of life?’ the question which expected the definition to the concept was answered with very different views. The responses included various categories such as happiness which was mentioned by the highest number of professionals as defining the first quality of life with 59.3%, 74.4% and 78.9% respectively by the doctors physiotherapists and the occupational therapists. They have mentioned happiness to be enjoyment of life, life satisfaction feeling that life is worth living, having life choices, personal dignity a sense of achievement, spiritual and material well being and living a life with little to worry.
The category which followed the happiness was social, which seemed like the ability to engage in or enjoy social interactions within the family or friends, communications and leisure activities. While, 30 out of the total participants responded to the quality of life as indefinable, 24 of them thought it is completely deferent from the above said or the following categories as the answered saying other. Then the physical as the functional ability and activities of daily living, including physical ability and feeding, activities of daily living, physical independence, ability to self-care and physical well being, along with mental defined as the mental well being, feeling in control, being of sound mind, having mental independence, mental health and psychological well being. The defined and mentioned other categories were independence which had no further explanations, subjective which meant that quality of live was an individual matter, economic to be financial well being or security and good health which also was not detailed further.
The measurement methods were mostly asking patients and the observing their behavior and needs. The professionals also ask patients relatives and seem to have their own standardized methods.
Reference:
Sanders.C, Egger.M, Donovan.J, Tallon.D & Frankel.S (1998) Reporting quality of life in randomized controlled trials: Bibliographic Study. 317:1191-94.
