Changes in subjective quality of life in Poland during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

This research aimed to investigate whether the subjective quality of life in Poland changed during the COVID-19 pandemic and to identify which domains: material or non-material were changed more. Additionally, the aim was to indicate the groups of people with the highest changes in subjective quality of life. The study was carried out on a representative sample of adult inhabitants of Poland (N=1067) in December 2020 and 2021. The question regarding the quality of life consists of eight items that were focused on the following aspects of quality of life: work, level of living, income, family life, work-life balance, health, access to infrastructure (sports, cultural), and access to healthcare. These items encompass two dimensions of quality of life: material (level of living, income) and non-material (the other items). The total score was defined as the mean of all subdomain scores. There was performed the Mann-Whitney test (the data did not follow the normal distribution). To assess the effect size the Glass rank biserial correlation coefficient was calculated. The present study shows that in Poland during the COVID-19 pandemic there were no changes in subjective quality of life in material aspects and only very small (but statistically significant) changes in non-material aspects. The most visible changes in the non-material domain were observed in the group aged 30-44 which suggests that this group of people was most affected by the pandemic and the pandemic-related restrictions.