Background: This study aimed to diagnose the quality of life of people
with disabilities through social, epidemiological, behavioural, educational, and
ecological factors based on the Predisposing, Reinforcing, and Enabling Causes in
Educational Diagnosis and Evaluation (PRECEDE) diagnostic model.
Methods: Using the systematic stratified cluster sampling method, 605
people with disabilities from five districts (Seoul, Gyeonggi, Chungcheong,
Jeolla, and Gyeongsang) who were registered at the welfare centres in 2019 were
recruited. In addition, the study participants were limited to grades 1 to 4 with
disabilities, and those with physical disabilities who did not have intellectual
disabilities. The final model’s goodness of fit was found to be good
( = 554.257 (p 0.001), Tucker Lewis Index (TLI) =
0.921, comparative fit index (CFI) = 0.939, root mean square error of
approximation (RMSEA) = 0.059). Results: The finding demonstrated that
physical self-efficacy and social support, excluding the health promotion
behavioural intention, were found to have a statistically significant effect. The
behavioural factor was found to have a statistically significant effect on the
epidemiological and the social factor. The former was also found to have a
statistically significant effect on the latter. The results for each group
according to gender were the same as for the integrated group in the case of men.
In the case of women, it was found that there was a direct effect on the
promotion behavior and health status, the promotion behavior and the quality of
life, and all other pathways were found to be statistically insignificant.
Conclusions: This research demonstrated that it is important to increase
the sense of efficacy and social support for enhancing the quality of life of the
physically disabled. Moreover, their health promotion behaviour had a positive
effect on their health status and quality of life. This evidence could be used as
data for establishing an efficient system for improving their quality of life.
