The impact of education and gender on the quality of life in persons with cerebral palsy

Abstract

The concept of quality of life for people with disabilities includes all aspects of life, intrapersonal, interpersonal and extrapersonal, which are related very closely. Estimation of quality of life of persons with disabilities is a prerequisite and first step in the strategy of improving the quality of life for this population. The aim of this study is to assess the quality of life in persons with cerebral palsy in relation to gender and educational structure. The study sample consisted of 100 people with cerebral palsy, of both sexes, aged 23 to 64 year. The questionnaire WHOQOL – BREF was used for the study. The results show that people with cerebral palsy evaluate highly their quality of life. However, the results also show that there is statistically significant difference between male and female in the two studied variables (p = 0,036, p = 0,003) in favor of the male respondents, while in the group of respondents in relation to the level of education recorded a statistically significant difference in the three variables (p = 0,011, p = 0,009, p = 0,042) in favor of those with higher education. It is possible that these results are in favor of subjectivity, experience and aspirations of the respondents, but also because of the restrictions in this study.