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Factors associated with quality of life among married women in rural China: a cross-sectional study

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Abstract

Purpose

Specific medical and living conditions in rural China may predispose people there to a poor quality of life. This study aimed to evaluate factors affecting the quality of life among married women in rural China.

Methods

This cross-sectional study was conducted in rural areas of Liaoning Province in China. Out of the 3900 married women, 3163 (81%) completed the questionnaire survey. Quality of life was assessed using the WHOQOL-BREF scale. Sociodemographic factors, such as monthly income, and living and health conditions, such as left-behind status, stress (quantified by the Perceived Stress Scale), and coping styles (assessed by the Simplified Coping Style Questionnaire) were collected through self-reported questionnaires. Hierarchical multiple regression was used to explore the factors related to quality of life.

Results

The mean scores of quality of life were 14.08 ± 2.27 for the domain of physical health, 11.78 ± 2.28 for psychological health, 13.07 ± 2.69 for social relationships, and 12.26 ± 2.67 for environmental conditions. Older age, having chronic diseases, being left-behind, sense of marriage insecurity, and stress were all negatively associated with quality of life scores, whereas a higher monthly income was associated with higher scores. Coping styles could be moderating factors in the relationship between stress and quality of life.

Conclusions

Overall, married women living in rural China had relatively low scores for quality of life. Improving family income, providing access to affordable and high-quality medical care, facilitating couple communication, and promoting active coping styles could be intervention strategies to improve the quality of life of these rural residents.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank all of the research assistants who undertook data collection and the participants for their selfless support of the study.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Social Medicine, School of Public Health, China Medical University, No. 77 Puhe Road, Shenyang North New Area, Shenyang, 110122, China

    Hao Huang, Siqi Liu & Hui Wu

  2. Nicholas School of Environment, Duke University, Box 90328, 9 Circuit Drive, Durham, NC, 27708, USA

    Xiaoxing Cui & Junfeng Zhang

  3. Duke Global Health Institute, Duke University, 310 Trent Drive, Durham, NC, 27710, USA

    Junfeng Zhang

Authors
  1. Hao Huang
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  5. Hui Wu
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Contributions

HH carried out data collection, analysis, and interpretation and wrote the paper. HW provided guidance in study design, organized the investigation, and is the corresponding author. SL provided help with the data collection and statistical analysis. XC assisted with the data interpretation. JZ provided guidance in result interpretation. All authors have read and approved the final version of the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Hui Wu.

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Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Ethical approval

The study was approved by the Committee for Human Trials of China Medical University (No. 2013PS170K).

Informed consent

Participants took part in the study after providing written informed consent.

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Huang, H., Liu, S., Cui, X. et al. Factors associated with quality of life among married women in rural China: a cross-sectional study. Qual Life Res 27, 3255–3263 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11136-018-1944-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11136-018-1944-y

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