Assessing Quality of Life in Sudan: A Study of the WHOQOL-Bref
Author Information
Author(s): Ohaeri Jude U, Awadalla Abdel W, El-Abassi Abdul-Hamid M, Jacob Anila
Primary Institution: Department of Psychiatry, Psychological Medicine Hospital, Kuwait
Hypothesis
The Sudanese general population data would yield different factors from the WHO's models, and the model constituted by these factors would have a better fit to the Sudanese data than the WHO models.
Conclusion
The findings support the credentials of WHO's 4-domain model as a universal QOL construct and suggest that including all items in factor analysis could enhance the analysis of WHOQOL-Bref.
Supporting Evidence
- The study found that two of the five factors from exploratory factor analysis were similar to the WHO's models.
- Confirmatory factor analysis showed that both the 5-domain model and WHO's 4-domain model met goodness of fit criteria.
- Path analysis indicated that 'life satisfaction' and 'sense of enjoyment' were direct predictors of overall quality of life.
Takeaway
This study looked at how people in Sudan feel about their quality of life and found that local factors matter just as much as the global ones from WHO.
Methodology
The study used exploratory factor analysis (FA) with 623 general population subjects and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) with 300 psychiatric outpatients and their caregivers.
Limitations
The patients were not representative of the Sudanese general population of psychiatric patients.
Participant Demographics
The general population sample consisted of 623 subjects (46.5% men, 52.8% women) with a mean age of 26.1 years, while the psychiatric sample included 300 patients with various mental disorders.
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
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