Health-related quality of life in women at work despite ill-health. A prospective, comparative study of hospital cleaners/home-help staff before and after staff support

The aims of this prospective, non-randomized, comparative study were to elu cidate how 99 female hospital cleaners and home-helps, at work despite ill- health, experienced their quality of life, and to study whether this was af fected by a particular programme of staff support. The SF-36 questionnaire was used. This contains questions on physical, mental and social health sta tus. Health status, i.e. experienced health, was assessed by the respondent s themselves. Low quality of life relating to the dimensions bodily pain, g eneral health perceptions and vitality proved to apply both to the hospital cleaners and the home-help staff, compared to a normal Swedish female popu lation. No significant differences between the intervention group and the r eference group were demonstrated among either the cleaners or the home-help s. Following the intervention/period of customary measures, experienced qua lity of lift was somewhat changed in the groups compared with the normal Sw edish female population. This may indicate a certain unspecific improvement in experienced quality of life in both the intervention groups and the ref erence groups.