Factors Influencing Health-related Quality of Life in Adult Women

Abstract

Objectives: The present study investigates the association between the health-related quality of life of Korean adult women and their socio-demographics, health behavior, and psychological characteristics. Methods: The analysis was carried out using the 8th Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey data (KNHNES) in the second year (2020), and the subjects consisted of 2,181 adult women between the ages of 19-64. A multivariate linear regression analysis was performed, employing three models to identify factors related to health-related quality of life as the dependent variable. In Model 1, socio-demographic characteristics were considered. While Model 2 includes both socio-demographics and health behavior characteristics. In Model 3, psychological characteristics as well as socio-demographic and health behavior characteristics were considered. Results: The health-related quality of life of adult women in late adulthood, post-menopause, low household income, and poor subjective health status were found to be low in the analysis of socio-demographic characteristics. For the health behavior characteristics, the health-related quality of life showed significant differences with respect to smoking, drinking, sleeping, and physical activity but these variables were not identified as the affecting factors. For the psychological characteristics, depression and perceived stress were found to be factors lowering the health-related quality of life. Conclusions: To enhance the health-related quality of life of adult women, prevention and proper management of depression and stress for those with poor health behavior are needed with special care and support for post-menopause women with low household income and poor subjective health status.