The Independence and the Quality of Life of Workers with Disabilities Caused by an Occupational Accident in Gresik and Sidoarjo, Indonesia

Introduction: An occupational accident causes a disability in workers. The disability condition will make the workers experience substantial limitations from every side of their life both in a social context and economic context 1, the dependence to their family 2, inability to live independently 3. The disability can also cause the workers to lose their job 4. The bad financial condition and the dependence give a negative impact on the quality of life of the workers with disabilities. The aim of this research was to analyze the influence of independence toward the quality of life.

Method: This research used a cross-sectional method. The population of this research was the workers with disabilities caused by an occupational accident in Sidoarjo Regency and Gresik Regency. The number of samples in this research was 182 participants. The sampling technique was done by using simple random sampling technique. The variables that were analyzed were the characteristic of the individual, the independence, and the quality of life. The measurement instrument for independence was done using Lawton-Browdy instrumental activities of daily living scale; the measuring instrument for the quality of life was done using WHOQol100 questionnaire (a standardized questionnaire). The data analysis was done using linear regression test with a significance level (α) of 0.05.

Results: Nearly 78% of participants had independence in the ‘moderate’ category with an average score of 81.51. The 78% of participants also had the quality of life in the ‘moderate’ category. Based on the regression test, it was obtained a result that the independence had a significant impact on the quality of life of workers with disabilities caused by occupational accident (p < 0.05).

Conclusion: The independence has a significant impact on the quality of life of workers with disabilities caused by an occupational accident. The better the worker’s independence is, the better the quality of life of the worker with a disability caused by an occupational accident is.