Background: Health-related quality of life (HRQOL) assessment and the determinants affecting it in the general population are essential to determine its needs and expectations. This work aims to evaluate the effect of educational level and marital status on HRQOL.
Methods: Duke Health Profile was administered to a sample of 385 people chosen by quotas, living in Tetuan city in northern Morocco.
Results: The Duke profile dimensions measured depend on the educational level, some of which tend to increase with studies increasing. Illiterate people have a bad perception of HRQOL for all dimensions, as opposed to those with high level of education. Marital status greatly influences the Duke profile dimensions. They was married people who express better HRQOL followed by singles, however divorced and especially widowed people had a bad perception of it.
Conclusion: They was illiterate people, divorced and widowed people who perceive themselves in poor health and have a bad perception of HRQOL.
Measures of the Health-Related Quality of Life have multiple potential applications, such as monitoring the evolution of the health status of population, the performance evaluation of public health policies conducted, the identification of populations at risk or help in developing interventions. However, few studies of this type have been conducted in Morocco. This work aims to study the Health-Related Quality of Life according to level of education and marital status among the population of the city of Tetouan through a survey. The SF-36 was administered to a sample selected by quotas containing 385 subjects over the age of 16 living in Tetouan city, northern Morocco. The different dimensions of the SF-36 measured depend on the level of education and tend to increase with increasing level of study. The illiterate people have significantly low scores for the majority of dimensions. However, university people report a better Health-Related Quality of Life. Marital status determines also the HRQOL of our population. Indeed single persons have higher scores for dimensions mainly related to physical health. As for the married persons, they have high scores for dimensions mainly related to mental health. However, divorced persons have lower scores than singles and married for all sizes, and widowed persons who have the lowest scores.