Factors associated with the Health-related Quality of Life of Firefighters

Seung Kyoung Yang

doi:10.12934/jkpmhn.2019.28.4.353

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Yang: Factors associated with the Health-related Quality of Life of Firefighters

Original Article

Journal of Korean Academy of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing 2019; 28(4): 353-361.

Published online: 31 December 2019

DOI: https://doi.org/10.12934/jkpmhn.2019.28.4.353

Factors associated with the Health-related Quality of Life of Firefighters

Seung Kyoung Yang

Assistant Professor, Department of Nursing, Kyungnam University, Changwon, Korea.

Corresponding author: Yang, Seung Kyoung. Department of Nursing, Kyungnam University, 7 Kyungnamdaehak-ro, Masanhappo-gu, Changwon 51767, Korea. Tel: +82-55-249-2120, Fax: +82-55-999-2140, yangsk@kyungnam.ac.kr

Received 8 November 2019 Revised 29 November 2019 Accepted 14 December 2019

The Korean Academy of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing

(open-access):

This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study was to identify the relationships among occupational identity, social support, posttraumatic growth, and health-related quality of life regarding firefighters.

Methods

The study was conducted with 149 firefighters working at two fire stations in South Gyeongsang Province. Data were collected between August and September 2018. There were four research instruments in the structured survey, including the occupational identity scale, social support scale, Korea Posttraumatic Growth Inventory and World Health Organization Quality of Life Assessment Instrument.

Results

As a result, the quality of life of firefighters was positively correlated with social support, occupational identity, and posttraumatic growth. The factors associated with the quality of life of firefighters were social support (β=.36, p<.001), and occupational identity (β=.31, p<.001). The total explanatory power of these variables was 53.1%.

Conclusion

To improve the health-related quality of life of firefighters based on the results of this study, it is necessary to develop support programs to strengthen social support and occupational identity.

Keywords: Firefighters, Quality of life, Occupations, Social support, Posttraumatic growth, Psychological

Figures and Tables

Table 1

General and Work related Characteristics (N=149)

Table 2

Degrees of Occupational Identity, Social Support, Posttraumatic Growth and Quality of Life (N=149)

Table 3

Differences in Quality of Life by General and Work related Characteristics of Participants (N=149)

^†Scheffé test.

Table 4

Correlations among Occupational Identity, Social Support, Posttraumatic Growth and Health related Quality of Life (N=149)

Table 5

Influencing Factors on Health related Quality of Life (N=149)

Notes

This work was supported by 2018 Kyungnam University Foundation Grant.

^{CONFLICTS OF INTEREST} The authors declared no conflict of interest.

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ORCID iDs: Seung Kyoung Yang
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7424-7263
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