Abstract
BACKGROUND: To assess the quality of life and its relationship with sociodemographic variables among physically disabled patients with artificial limb replacement reporting at artificial limb centre of a tertiary care facility.
METHODS: A descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out in the artificial limb centre of Fauji Foundation Hospital, Rawalpindi - a tertiary care facility. 100 consecutive out- patients of both sexes between ages of 13-60 years with artificial limb replacement from December 2011 to July 2012 were included in the study. The patients below age of 13 years, comorbid congenital limb deformities other than limb loss, having language barrier and who refused to participate in study were excluded from the study. Participating patients underwent detail assessments which included: application of consent form, demographic profile assessment, and assessment of quality of life by applying WHO QOL BRIEF (Quality of life WHO Scale) Urdu version. Ethical permission was acquired from the hospital ethical committee. The data was entered into SPSS package version 10 .To calculate the relationship of sociodemographic factors and quality of life domains Chi square test was applied and P value of significance was calculated.
RESULTS: In this study majority of the patients were having average quality of life in all domains. Regarding relationship of sociodemographic factors with quality of life, the average quality of life in all domains (D1, D2, D3, D4) was found in all variables except those who were educated till intermediate were having low quality of life in domain 3 and 4. P value of significance (<0.05) was found non significant in all the variables.
CONCLUSION: The results of current study should be considered carefully when planning assessment and rehabilitation programs for individuals with physical disabilities and limb replacement. The sample size was too small to generalize the conclusion, that’s why further research involving larger sample size and longitudinal follow up is required to elucidate the possible perspective.

Key words: Artificial limb replacement, quality of life, disability.