Year: 2010
Type: dissertation
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: Forced immigration in most cases is compounded by unprecedented human health problems as a result of traumatic life experiences.Atrocities affect both the mental and the physical wellbeing of refugees.Physical disability is one of the health problems faced by refugees more especially in post-war circumstances.The pathway to becoming a refugee is marked by significant personal hardship, which includes experiences of war and civil unrest, torture and other trauma, loss of family members and displacement from ones original home.Hence, quality of life becomes compromised by these experiences.There are about 16 million refugees worldwide with Zambia being home to 175,584.The study aimed to determine the health-related quality of life of these refugees with physical disabilities living in Mayukwayukwa refugee camp in Zambia.Furthermore, the physical functional status among refugees with physical disabilities was determined and the association between sociodemographic factors, level of physical function and health-related quality of life was established.A cross-sectional, descriptive study design using quantitative methods was conducted.Structured self-administered questionnaires were used to collect data on healthrelated quality of life and level of physical functioning using a study sample of 314 randomly selected participants.The sample included males and females between 18-65 years of age with physical disabilities.The WHOQOL-BREF and the Functional Status Questionnaire (FSQ), internationally validated questionnaires, were used to collect data.Analysis of data was done using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS).Since the variables of interest are ordinal in nature, Spearman Rank Correlations or Kruskal-Wallis test were used to compare groups.Chi-square tests were also used to check for significant associations between quality of life, physical function and selected socio-demographic variables.The majority of the participants (68.8%) had a lower limb disability.Gunshots, landmines and iv bomb explosions were the main causes of disabilities for 88.9 % of the participants.More than half (54.8 %) of the participants rated their quality of life as either very poor or poor, while 37.3 % rated it as neither poor nor good.The mean score for physical health, psychological, social relations and environmental domains were 41.4,49.4,70.1 and 37.7 respectively.Education was significantly related to the psychological domain (p=0.0022)and social relations (p=0.0324)domains.This study attests to the fact that disability is an issue in conflict-affected populations, in particular refugees.Refugees with disabilities living in Mayukwayukwa refugee camp also have poor HRQOL similar to other studies.Education was the only variable significantly correlated to the psychological and social domains of the HRQOL.The study highlighted that environmental and personal variables played a role in the determination of health related quality of life among refugees with disabilities.v DEDICATION This thesis is dedicated to my wife, my son and daughter.To my parents, Geoffrey and Joyce Mulenga who loves me unconditionally and always prays for me on a daily basis.
Author: Davie Mulenga
Language: English
Topic: Migration, Health and Trauma
Subfield: Clinical Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2301727519