Factors affecting quality of life among employees of public institutions：a structural equation model

Objective To study quality of life(QOL)among public institution employees and to explore health related behaviors influencing the QOL for health education and behavior intervention.Methods A questionnaire survey was conducted among 355 employees selected with cluster random sampling from 5 public institutions in Dongguan city of Guangdong province.A structural equation model was constructed,corrected and fitted to analyze the relationship between QOL and health behaviors.Results The QOL score among the employees was 60.8±15.8 for general healeh,88.8±13.8 for physical function,84.6±27.6 for role-physical,70.3±13.2 for bodily pain,72.6±38.6 for role-emotional,92.0±20.5 for social function,67.4±15.7 for vitality,66.7±16.1 for mental health,75.9±12.5 for physical component summary(PCS),and 74.4±17.1 for mental component summary(MCS),respectively. The model fitted the data well(x²/df=2.90),with the root mean square error of approximation of 0.073,non-normed fit index of 0.91,comparative fit index of 0.93,and incremental fit index of 0.93,respectively.The structure coefficients were 1.02 between health behavior and PCS and 0.93 between health behavior and MCS;the structure coefficients were 0.28 between health management and PCS and 0.22 between health management and MCS. The effects of health behavior and health management on PCS were all greater than on MCS and the effect of health behavior on QOL was more greater.Conclusion Health behavior and health management have positive effect on public institution employees' QOL,and the QOL could be improved by behavior intervention and the increase of health management consciousness.