A Comparative Analysis of Quality of Life between the Male and Female Working Age Population of Uttar Dinajpur District, West Bengal, India

Quality of life (QOL) is defined as a concept of economics, sociology, and Political science which encompasses an individual’s spiritual or emotional, social and Physical well-being. QOL is influenced by an individual’s Physical and Mental health, the degree of independency, the social relationship with the environment, and other factors (Jouzas, 2012 & Shin, 1979). The evaluation of quality of life depends on the individual’s value system and on the cultural environment where he lives (Gilgeous, 1998). This paper aims to show the differences between the Male and Female working age population of different Working age groups i.e. Younger Working age group 15-24 years, Middle Working Age group 25-54 years and Older Working Age group 55-64 years in terms of Quality of Life (QOL). This paper follows the analysis of scientific and methodological literature to analyse the Quality of Life. The QOL data is acquired through the WHOQOL-BREF questionnaire using 26 questions where 24 questions were pertaining to the four domains of QOL i.e. Physical Health, Psychological Health, Social Relationship and Environmental health. The sample size n꞊ 384 is calculated using the Cochran’s formula where N꞊ 1775962. All the domains are scored on 5 point ordinal scale which is then transformed to a 0-100 scale. The transformed domain scores are used separately to assess Quality of life in the working age groups. For the current paper Uttar Dinajpur is taken as the study area which comprises of nine blocks. The data are statistically analysed by SPSS.20 with descriptive and statistical tests and presented with graphs, tables, and maps. Results: There are total 198 or 51.56% males and 186 or 48.43% females where (n꞊ 384). In terms of Working Age group 14.1% males and 23.75 females belong to the Younger Working Age group, 58.5% males and 41.5% females belong to the Middle working Age group and 44.35 males and 55.7% females are in the older working Age group. The study shows vivid variations in the QOL between males and females in terms of QOL when demographic and socioeconomic variables taken into consideration. Females show negative but significant association with Psychological health and Environmental health whereas this is inversed in males. Overall Males are performing better in terms of Quality of life as compared to females in the economically active working age population. The working age population, marital status, Educational attainment, Occupation, house condition, Road Condition and drinking water are the significant predictors of QOL in working age population.