Quality of Life of Iranian Vocational Students with and without Intellectual Disability

Abstract

The purpose of the present study was to compare the attitudes of individuals with and without intellectual disability toward their quality of life. Associations between demographic variables such as sex, age, father's education, and father's occupation and quality of life were also assessed. 40 people with intellectual disability from special schools were matched with 40 people from Shiraz Vocational Teaching Center on sex, age, and fathers' careers and educations. There was no significant difference between the two groups on total Quality of Life scores, but differences were found in subscales. The groups with intellectual disability reported higher scores on the dimensions of life satisfaction, competency/productivity, and social belongingness/community integration. The normal group scored higher on empowerment/independence. In the intellectual disability group, the father's career was a better predictor of quality of life.

Comparing the quality of life of adults with and without intellectual disability

“…Despite people with ID have reported lower QOL, we did not observe robust differences between participants with and without ID in the emotional and physical wellbeing domains. Other studies also supported this evidence for the satisfaction dimension among both groups (Hematian et al 2009;McGillivray et al 2009). Moreover, several authors emphasise higher satisfaction reported by people with ID (Hensel et al 2002;Bramston et al 2005).…”

“…Other studies also supported this evidence for the satisfaction dimension among both groups (Hematian et al . ; McGillivray et al . ).…”

“…In fact, people with ID often have significant restrictions on social participation and find environmental barriers (Watson & Keith 2002;Santos 2014), which can be negatively reflected in their own QOL (Hematian et al 2009). Practitioners do not always support people with ID to assume an active role as members of society (Santos 2014).…”

Quality of life in adults with intellectual disabilities: Objective indicators

“…Only slight advantages of one of the two groups were detected in some domains. Authors of an Iranian study (Hematian, Alborzi & Khayyer, 2009), reported somewhat different results according to which persons with ID had the same QoL level as their TD peers with regard to QoL total score, while differences were determined only in the following domains: Life satisfaction, Competency/productivity and Social belongingness/community integration in favor of persons with ID. TD participants had better QoL in Empowerment/independence domain.…”

Validity and reliability of the persian version of the world health organization quality of life disabilities module

“…QoL of students with and without intellectual disabilities. The findings of the study demonstrated fathers' occupation and education were predictors of QoL score among students with intellectual disabilities (Hematian et al, 2009).…”