Quality of Life Assessment among Visually Impaired Students using Assistive Technology at Special Education Schools of Gujranwala City

Abstract

Background: Visual impairment is considered to be a leading public health problem in Pakistan. It affects the quality of life of individuals by confining their mobility and social interaction. Assistive technology helped people with disabilities to live healthy, productive, and independent and participate in education. So, it is important to understand how assistive products can be used by visually impaired students to improve their quality-of-life despite of their visual impairment. Objective: The study aimed to assessed the quality of life of visually impaired students using assistive technology and to find the association between quality of life and sociodemographic characteristics of visually impaired students using assistive technologies at special education schools of Gujranwala city. Methodology: A quantitative cross-sectional study was carried at special education schools of Gujranwala. A total of 151 respondents who were studying at special education schools were selected through stratified random sampling. Data were entered and analyzed using SPSS version 26.0. Pearson Chi square test of association was applied to find out the association of quality of life with sociodemographic factors. Results: Among 151 participants, there were 82 (54.3%) male and 69 (45.7%) were female. In this study about 85.4% participants reported to had high quality of life with assistive technologies and 87.4% participants reported to had good health. Chi square test of association was performed which showed a significant association between vision related quality of life with vi gender, eye condition, assistive devices of leisure and mobility, frequency of assistive devices used and duration of assistive devices used. On the other hand, study showed a significant association of general health of visually impaired students with age, gender, eye condition and duration of assistive technology used (p <0.05). Conclusion: The findings study concluded that most of the visually impaired students who were using assistive technology for their educational purpose and daily activities reported a positive influence from them on their quality of life and good health status. So, assistive technology improved their quality of life of visually impaired students at special education of schools. Keywords: Quality of life, Assistive technology, Visual Impairment, Special education schools, Vision related Quality of life, General health status.