Naslov
Health related quality of life and satisfaction with life in Croatia

Autori
Vuletic, Gorka

Vrsta, podvrsta i kategorija rada
Sažeci sa skupova, pp prezentacija, znanstveni

Izvornik
Proceedings of the 8th Australian Conference on Quality of Life / Yvonne MacKay - Melbourne : Deakin University, 2007, 51-57

ISBN
978-1-74156-073-2

Skup
8th Australian Conference on Quality of Life

Mjesto i datum
Melbourne, Australija, 29.11.2006. - 30.11.2006

Vrsta sudjelovanja
Predavanje

Vrsta recenzije
Međunarodna recenzija

Ključne riječi
quality of life; health; Croatia

Sažetak
Within the overall strategy for health care system reform, the Croatian Ministry of Health launched the 2003 Croatia Nacional Health Survey project, funded by the World Bank, to assess the population health status in Croatia. The NSH survey included a number of questions concerning respondent’ s demographic characteristics, living conditions, and relevant habits and behaviours. The health status was assessed by direct questions on previous and current diseases and by using the Croatian version of SF- 36 Health status questionnaire. Andrija Stampar School of Public Health and National Institute for Public Health were the institutions which formed the project team and conducted the survey (field work, data collection, data analysis).Following the recognition of individual’ s own perception as a useful indicator of general health status, perceived health has become one of the most significant health indicators studied today. Self- ratings of health have been found to be better predictors of future health than clinical judgments so we included self assessment of health in our National health survey besides all other medical data. Croatian mean score for the subjective quality of life (SQOL) measured through single question “ How do you satisfied with your life as a whole?” was 56.96 %SM, which was also lower than in Western European countries. Although men reported slightly lower SQOL the difference was not significant. Health related quality of life was measured with SF36 questionnaire. The total result on SF-36 questionnaire is most often shown in the form of the profile defined with eight points that represent the measure of individual aspects of health transformed into a unique scale whose theoretical minimum is a score of 0, and the maximum a score of 100. On all scales higher results indicate better subjective health. Croatian adult population depict a same pattern, but lower average values than Australian and Canadian profiles. There are many reasons for that, since Croatia is one of the European countries in transition. War activities in whole Balkan area should be mentioned here, which certainly affected Croatian population in many ways. Average health status declined with age, and females showed inferior subjective health than males (t-tests showed statistically significant differences, P<0.001, between men and women on the scales Physical Functioning, Role Physical, Social Functioning and Role Emotional). According to these findings, separate norms were needed for valid interpretation of the SF-36 Health Profile for different age groups of men and women. Subjective quality of life is a concept that is distinctive and separate to health related QOL. It was found that Subjective quality of life is important in assessing the functioning of individuals, as well as health of the nation. Measures of Subjective quality of life are included in the last Croatian National health survey and it was agreed to continue with measuring QOL in further national health surveys.

Izvorni jezik
Engleski

Znanstvena područja
Javno zdravstvo i zdravstvena zaštita, Psihologija

POVEZANOST RADA