Asif Hanif, Ijaz Nasir, Ambreen Butt, Usman Javed Iqbal, Tahira Ashraf.
Quality of Life of patients with Tuberculosis a Case Control Study.
Pak J Med Health Sci Jan ;8(3):691-3.

Aim: To know quality of life of tuberculosis patients as compare controls. Methods: A case control study of total 268 subjects was conducted at Gulab Devi Chest hospital and Medical unit-IV services hospital Lahore. A total of 134 patients (cases) with tuberculosis and 134 (controls) without tuberculosis [attendants or drivers] were included in the study. Patients who had known respiratory co-morbidity other than TB or any known and diagnosed chronic illness, which may affect QoL, were excluded from the study. Controls were selected from general population after matching for age, gender and socio-economic status (was assessed only subjectively). All cases and controls were interviewed using a pre-tested questionnaire (adopted from SF-36) regarding socio-demographic data, perception about QoL. Four domains such as: physical health, psychological health, social relationships and environment were focused. Results: Out of total 134 patients (cases) with TB, 50.7% were males and 49.3% were females. Majority of the patients i.e. 79.1% were married and 67.8% of the patients were illiterate. The socio-demographic profile of the controls was comparable to that of the cases with significant differences (p < 0.05). TB patients had significantly lower mean scores than the controls for overall QoL and its domains. The mean difference in scores for the cases and the controls was highly significant for all the domains. Over all scores for controls and cases were 15.33±2.50 (p-value=≤ 0.001) & 24.49±1.73 (p-value= ≤ 0.001) for physical, 15.83±3.07 (p-value=≤ 0.001) & 26.01±1.87 (p-value=≤ 0.001) for psychological and 2.72±1.19 (p-value=≤ 0.001) & 3.13±0.90 (p-value=≤ 0.001) for social relationship. Conclusion: There has been relatively little research on TB QOL and even less in developing countries. A better understanding may help to improve treatment regimens, adherence to treatment, functioning and psychological well-being of people with TB.

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