Quality of Life of Wives of Alcoholics

Abstract

Background: Alcoholism is a common problem both in developing as well as developed countries. It leads significant harm to the physical, psychological and social health of individuals, families and communities as a whole. Wives of the alcoholics are the persons who suffer the consequences of alcoholism and its effects the most.Objective: To assess the quality of life of wives of alcoholics. Materials and Method:Quantitative approach with descriptive survey research design was adopted in the study. Total 150 men residing at Mangalore and Bantwal taluk of Dakshina Kannada district were administered the AUDIT tool through house to house survey, of which 132 men who scored 8 to 10 were taken as alcoholics and their wives were selected as participants through purposive sampling technique. Participant information sheet and informed consent was obtained. The data was gathered by using WHOQOL-BREF tool to assess the quality of life.Results: Shows that mean quality of life score of wives of alcoholics in physical domain (11.73), psychological (9.43), social (5.04) and environmental (13.10) respectively. The chi-square test shows that there is a highly significant association between QOL scores of subjects and selected variables such as income of family (p ≤ 0.001) and number of children (p ≤ 0.018). Conclusion:The study findings revealed that wives of alcoholics are having poor quality of life. Hence need to adopt effective interventions to promote the wellbeing of the wives of alcoholics and to improve their quality of life.