Quality of Life Assessment in Healthcare Professionals with Occupational Diseases

Abstract

Summary. Introduction: Quality of life (QOL) is an integral concept characterizing the level of comfort of the social and natural environment for human life and work, the level of well-being and social, spiritual and physical health. Currently, the number of scientific disciplines that include this concept as an object of study is expanding. Our objective was to study the impact of the system of rehabilitation measures provided for by the current federal legislation in relation to this category of patients on the quality of life of healthcare professionals with occupational diseases. Materials and methods: We assessed QOL changes related to rehabilitation in 124 healthcare professionals of the North-West Federal District who received full or partial rehabilitation for occupational diseases in 2000–2017. Results: We analyzed the dynamics of QOL indicators and assessed physical condition and the ability to perform certain functions in our subjects. The most significant changes were established for such indicators as concentration of attention (by 0.2 on average; p = 0.0393) and quality of life (by 0.2 on average; p = 0.0256). We found an improved QOL in almost 40 % of healthcare professionals with occupational diseases related to physical workloads compared with the groups of occupational infection and allergy cases. Moreover, the increment was quite small (0.2 in terms of the difference in average values, with the expected growth of at least 1–2 points). Conclusions: Incomplete and inconsistent implementation of rehabilitation measures in healthcare professionals suffering from occupational diseases leads to an insufficiently effective increase in their quality of life. A better QOL improvement in these patients requires appropriate correction of drawbacks in carrying out rehabilitation measures.