An Investigation of Health Related Quality of Life (HRQOL) in Adults of the City of Tehran with Emphasis on Self - Reported Health

This study aims to investigate health related quality of life (HRQOL) in adults of Tehran, the capital of Iran, in comparison with other countries. EQ-5D-5L, the questionnaire of health related quality of life developed by EUROQOL, is used here to reach this purpose. The questionnaire consists of a visual analogue scale (EQ-VAS) and a descriptive system of health. Descriptive system has five dimensions: mobility, self-care, usual activities, pain/discomfort and anxiety/depression. The correlation of EQ-VAS and the five dimensions with the variables age and sex is measured by statistics. Results show poor self-reported health status in Iran, comparing with other countries. Like other researches, women evaluated their health status less than men. By EQ-VAS, the adults of Tehran assessed their health status less than most of the comparing countries. In the five dimensions of the descriptive system of EQ-5D, mobility, pain/discomfort and anxiety/depression are not appropriate, but anxiety/depression needs more consideration. Adults of Tehran reported more than 23 percent problems in the dimension anxiety/depression in all ages and the problem in the age group 18-24 is more than the problems of the three next 10-age age groups. It warns about the mental health of the society specially youths. Also health status of elderly of Tehran, especially women, needs more attention