The Relationship between Quality of Life and Acceptance of Disability and Social Support in Colostomy Patients

Objective: To describe the quality of life, the acceptance of disability, the social support of colostomy patients and to explore the relationship between quality of life and acceptance of disability and social support. Method: using QLQ-C30 scale, QLQ-CR38 scale, Acceptance of Disability Scale and the Social Relational Quality Scale to investigate 111 colostomy patients, during the time from August of 2011 to February of 2012. Data was analyzed with SPSS 17.0. Results:  The acceptance of disability of colostomy patients was positive correlated with global health status (p<0.05). Acceptance of disability was positive correlated with the functional scales of QLQ-C30 and QLQ-CR38 (p<0.05), and was negative correlated with symptom scales (p<0.05). The level of social support was positive correlated with global health status (p<0.05). The score of social support was positive correlated with the functional scales of QLQ-C30, including role functioning and social functioning (p<0.05). Conclusion: The global health status of colostomy patients after ostomy was good, while the role functioning, social functioning and cognitive functioning was not improved, and also the aspects of fatigue, pain, constipation, diarrhea and financial difficulties were not significantly alleviated. With higher level of acceptance of disability and social support, the colostomy patients can receive higher level of functional status and better improvement of symptoms, so that the level of global health status will be enhanced. The higher the acceptance of disability is, the better the quality of life will be.