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Health-Related Quality of Life of Chinese Earthquake Survivors: A Case Study of Five Hard-Hit Disaster Counties in Sichuan

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Abstract

As one of the most destructive natural disasters, earthquakes affect the health of survivors. The devastating earthquakes that hit Sichuan, China have aroused the concern of domestic and international scholars. The health-related quality of life (HRQOL) of survivors also requires substantial research. Studies on impact factors, such as gender, age, monthly income, and education, have become controversial. The subjects in this study are the people of five hard-hit disaster counties in Sichuan Province, namely, Wenchuan, Qingchuan, Mianzhu, Lushan, and Dujiangyan. A preliminary survey was conducted in May and June 2013 in areas badly hit by the earthquake in Sichuan, China. A total of 2000 questionnaires were distributed, and 1672 of which were received, yielding a recovery rate of 83.6 %. To further complement and corroborate the conclusions, a follow-up survey was conducted in October and November 2013, where 1526 effective questionnaires were received. The analysis in this paper is mainly based on the first survey, and the collected data from the follow-up survey were used to perform a supplementary analysis. By analyzing data from five hard-hit areas in Sichuan and by establishing models, we drew the following conclusions: The results of analysis of variance and Tukey’s honestly significant difference tests revealed the following results. First, the results of two investigations indicate the HRQOL of earthquake survivors is relatively poor, especially in terms of general health (GH), mental health (MH), social functioning (SF), etc. However, results of the second survey indicate that the scores of all domains (except GH) have increased significantly, with the SF having the most significant increase. Second, the HRQOL scores of men are higher than those of women. Individuals with higher education or monthly income have higher HRQOL scores than those with lower education or income. Moreover, younger survivors have higher HRQOL scores than older survivors. Third, a positive correlation exists among the HRQOL domains of all survivors. Among all domains, the PF, RP, GH, MH, and VT of survivors have a very strong correlation. In addition, SF, BP, MH, and VT have a strong correlation. Other variables have a relatively weak correlation.

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Notes

  1. The two photos below were taken in Guangyuan and Ya’an, two of the sites where the questionnaires were distributed.

Abbreviations

HRQOL:

Health-related quality of life

SF-36:

Medical outcome study short form 36

PCS:

Physical component summary

MCS:

Mental component summary

CFA:

Confirmatory factor analysis

ANOVA:

Analysis of variance

1st Qu:

One fourth quartile

3rd Qu:

Three quarter quartile

PF:

Physical functioning

RP:

Role physical

RE:

Role emotional

SF:

Social functioning

BP:

Body pain

GH:

General health

VT:

Vitality

MH:

Mental health

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Acknowledgments

This paper is supported by the General Program of National Natural Science Foundation of China (71173099) and the Program for New Century Excellent Talents in University (NCET-11-0228). The authors would also like to thank Peiyi Lu (School of Communication and Design of Sun Yat-sen University) for her contributions to this study and Shu Zhang (School of Humanities and Social Sciences of Nanjing University of Science & Technology) for her contributions to the survey.

Conflict of interests

The authors declare that they have no conflict interests.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Social Work and Social Policy, School of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Nanjing University, Nanjing, 210023, People’s Republic of China

    Ying Liang

  2. School of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Nanjing University, Nanjing, People’s Republic of China

    Panghan Chu

  3. School of Statistics and Mathematics, Zhejiang Gongshang University, Zhejiang, People’s Republic of China

    Xiukun Wang

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  1. Ying Liang
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Correspondence to Ying Liang.

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Liang, Y., Chu, P. & Wang, X. Health-Related Quality of Life of Chinese Earthquake Survivors: A Case Study of Five Hard-Hit Disaster Counties in Sichuan. Soc Indic Res 119, 943–966 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-013-0525-2

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