Affiliations 

  • 1 Universiti Putra Malaysia
MyJurnal

Abstract

Introduction: Tuberculosis negatively impacts the patients’ quality of life (QoL). Information on QoL among tuber-culosis patients may highlight gaps in the current management of the disease by identifying target groups with lower QoL. This study aimed to identify the sociodemographic factors associated with QoL among patients followed up in an urban tertiary hospital. Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted among adults with drug-sensitive pulmonary tuberculosis, selected using simple random sampling method, in the Institute of Respiratory Medicine, Kuala Lumpur. The WHOQOL BREF was utilised to evaluate the physical, psychological, social relationships and environment domains of QoL. Descriptive analysis and univariate analyses to test association between independent sociodemographic factors and QoL domain mean scores were done. Results: A total of 237 patients participated with a response rate of 96.34%. The factor associated with the physical domain was sex (t = 2.06, p = 0.04), whilst age (F = 3.77, p = 0.02), sex (t = 4.04, p < 0.001), marital status (F = 3.09, p = 0.04) and education level (F = 4.92, p = 0.008) were associated with the social relationships domain. Age (F = 3.55, p = 0.03), sex (t = 2.12, p = 0.03), edu-cation level (F = 7.97, p < 0.001) and monthly household income (F = 3.57, p = 0.03) were factors associated with the environment domain. No sociodemographic factors were associated with the psychological domain in this study. Conclusion: Patients who were younger, female, married, had tertiary education or monthly household income of more than RM6000 were associated with higher QoL. Targeted interventions among the sociodemographic groups with lower QoL could complement current clinical management to improve tuberculosis patients’ QoL.