%0 Journal Article
%T Health related quality of life among Iraqi immigrants settled in Malaysia
%A Aqil M Daher
%A Hisham S Ibrahim
%A Thaaer M Daher
%A Ali Anbori
%J BMC Public Health
%D 2011
%I BioMed Central
%R 10.1186/1471-2458-11-407
%X A self-administered Arabic version of Sf-36 questionnaire was distributed among 300 Iraqi migrants in Malaysia. The questionnaire taps eight concepts of physical and mental health to assess the HRQOL. Univariate analysis was performed for group analysis (t test, ANOVA) and Multiple Linear Regression was used to control for confounding effects.Two hundred and fifty three participants ranging in age from 18 to 67 years (Mean = 33.6) returned the completed questionnaire. The majority was males (60.1%) and more than half of the respondents (59.5%) were married. Less than half (45.4%) and about a quarter (25.9%) reported bachelor degree and secondary school education respectively and the remaining 28.7% had either a master or a PhD degree.Univariate analysis showed that the HRQOL scores among male immigrants were found to be higher than those of females in physical function (80.0 vs. 73.5), general health (72.5 vs. 60.7) and bodily pain (87.9 vs. 72.5) subscales. The youngest age group had significantly higher physical function (79.32) and lower mental health scores (57.62).The mean score of physical component summary was higher than the mental component summary mean score (70.22 vs. 63.34).Stepwise multiple linear regression, revealed that gender was significantly associated with physical component summary (¦Â = - 6.06, p = 0.007) and marital status was associated with mental component summary (¦Â = 7.08, p = 0.003).From the data it appears that Iraqi immigrants living in Malaysia have HRQOL scores that might be considered to indicate a relatively moderate HRQOL. The HRQOL is significantly affected by gender and marital status. Further studies are needed to explore determinants of HRQOL consequent to immigration. The findings could be worthy of further exploration.Human migration has been described as 'one of the defining issues of the 21st century'. It refers to the movement of a person or group of people from one geographical region to another, across an administrative
%U http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2458/11/407