Archives of Hellenic Medicine

Last update:

18-Feb-2025

Arch Hellen Med, 42(2), March-April 2025, 227-235

ORIGINAL PAPER

Resilience and quality of life in people with disabilities

L. Marmouta,¹ P. Marmouta,¹ Α. Tsounis,² C. Tzavara,³ M. Malliarou,⁴ P. Sarafis^1,5
¹School of Social Sciences, Hellenic Open University, Patras,
²Department of Psychology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki,
³Medical School, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens,
⁴Department of Nursing, University of Thessaly, Larissa,
⁵General Department, University of Thessaly, Lamia, Greece

OBJECTIVE The evaluation of the levels of quality of life and mental resilience among people with disabilities in Greece and the study of their relationship.

METHOD The present study involved 120 patients with disabilities (52 women; 68 men) who had applied to the Disability Certification Centers (KEPA). The structured questionnaire that was used contained questions related to the socio-demographic data of the sample, the mental resilience which was assessed with the CD-RISC-10 Scale, the social support which was assessed with the OSLO scale and the quality of life which was measured with the Health Survey Short-Form (SF-36) Scale. Statistical analysis was performed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS), version 22.0.

RESULTS On the resilience scale, the mean score of the participants was 18.7±9.0. The mean score for physical health was 34.6±11.1 and for mental health it was 36.8±12.8. Participants who lived alone had worse physical functioning, worse emotional role, less vitality, and worse general and physical health. Those who worked had better physical functioning, general and physical health, and more vitality. Participants with a chronic physical health problem had worse physical functioning, social role and general health. Resilience was a positive predictor of physical functioning, general, physical and mental health, social and emotional role, and vitality, while it was negatively related to physical pain.

CONCLUSIONS Resilience is positively related to the quality of life of people with disabilities. The existence of a national agency that will focus on disability may contribute to the improvement of the quality of life of these individuals.

Key words: Disability, Quality of life, Resilience, Social support.