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 WHOQOLBREF
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.