Research On Drug Users' Health Related Quality Of Life(HR-QOL) And Influential Factors

OBJECTIVE: To describe the drug users' quality of life and investigate the influential factors of their HR-QOL,and to providing reference for taking effective medical intervention to improve their health profile and HR-QOL.METHOD: 166 drug users were recruited to harm reduction center in the community of Bianyang Street, Nanning city. The questionnaire which includes two parts-Health questionnaire and quality of life scale of drug addict (QOL-DA V2.0) were completed by trained interviewers afer face-to-face interviews. The data of the questionnaires and scales were used descriptive analysis, factor analysis, univariate analysis, multiple regression analysis.RESULTS:1. 166 drug users' mean age is 32.99 years(32.99±5.93),most of them are male(80.1%). Unmarried are 60.8 %, and 13.3% people are divorced. 63.3% people are unemployed. All the addicts are injection drug users (IDUs), and 84.4% abuse heroin. The proportion of addicts of sharing needle is 6% in past a month. 21.1% users had sexual behaviors with different people in past 6 months. Many addicts would go to see doctor or buy medicine when they were sick, 17.2% people didn't care their sickness at all. 97% addicts get the service of needle -exchange , 93.4% get peer group education .But only a few users took mentality consultation and methadone treatment .They want to get the health services including needle-exchange programme, methadone treatment, voluntary detoxification treatment, health education, mentality consultation etc. They hope the agency and sort of harm reduction service could increase ,then it could facilitate them participate.2. The reliability and validity of QOL-DA V2.0 are validated: split half reliability is 0.84,Crobach's alpha is more than 0.7 except social function dimension (SO).The factor analysis resulted in 8 principal components which together explained 64.65% of the variance. The summary scale score is 126.66,and SO scores is only 29.4, and it is lower than other dimensions'. More than 50% users' physical function and daily life activities were seriously damaged. They generally felt lonely, melancholy, helpless, unbelieving. Most of the users had syndromes of withdrawal and side effect of drug, more than 30% addicts outbreak severely. The absence of societal function and obstacle in sociality are the severe problems to those addicts. Addict seriously influenced their social position, and the ability of gaining help and adapting surroundings.3. The manner of treat with illness influences the QOL score. The addicts who treat positively with their illness and always go to hospital got higher QOL score than other people (p<0.05).Some addicts were treated with satisfactory medical service quality and good attitude in health care facilitis, and their score in SO were higher than others (p<0.05). In the multiple regression model: average income of users' family members, divorce and the frequency of malaise are the influential factors of physical functioning (p<0.05); the frequency of abuse per day and divorce associate with the score of psychological function (p<0.05); the frequency of malaise and abuse time influence the dimension score of syndromes of withdrawal and side effect; the proportion of the drug consumption/ income , and average income of users' family members these factors associates with the score of SO. CONCLUSION : TO drug users, physical, psychological and societal functioning all were harmed in difference degree, and societal functioning was more severely. Marriage, economy status, drug behavior, taking medical services all influence the drug users' QOL. Most of the users care their health, but they can't generally take medical services and harm reduction integrative intervention services. So they expect they can conveniently get those high quality services. For integrally improve drug users' QOL, we need to mobilize and exploit potence of society, family, and friend. Community should take more effectively measures to help drug users, and set up convenience ,high level system of community integrative health services, and create a friendly atmosphere to lead the drug users change and reduction their dangerous behaviors, and reduce infectious disease prevalence , protect their health and promote their functiongning renew.