Abstract

It is important how women describe their quality of life. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of rural residence on quality of life of the married women. The Wellness and Quality of Life Questionnaire (WHOQOL) was used to assess QOL rural residence in Iranian married women. A total of 1,140 (577 urban and 563 rural) women aged 20-45 years were selected using standard cluster sampling technique in Babol, Iran. The questionnaire with 55 items consists of five domains: physical state, mental/emotional state, stress evaluation, life enjoyment, and overall quality of life. Lower scores in three domains: physical state, mental/emotional state, and stress evaluation mean better QOL. Higher scores in life enjoyment and overall quality of life mean better QOL. Rural residences smoke more and have a lower level of education, higher level physical activity, higher level of good self reported dietary, and lower long term health problems than urban residents. After adjusting confounding variables, logistic regression indicated living in rural settings statistically decrease the probability of having worse quality of life related to physical health (OR 0.67; CI 0.50-0.91), higher life enjoyment (OR 0.44; CI 0.32-0.61), and better overall QOL (OR 0.44; CI 0.37-0.61). The results have been suggested to be useful in order to anticipate greater health care needs of the rural married women and improve their quality of life by providing more opportunities for rural women.

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