Evaluation of the quality of life of workers in small - medium enterprises in the Central district of Sakarya province and the effective factors

INTRODUCTION AND PURPOSE: In this study, it was aimed to evaluate the quality of life of workers in small-medium sized enterprises (SME) located in the central district of Sakarya province and the factors that may affect it. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The universe of this cross-sectional research was the ones working in SMEs which are the members of the Union of Chambers of Merchants and Craftsmen. The sample size was calculated to be at least 384. 406 participants were included in the study analysis. Survey form prepared by searching the literature and questionnaire of WHOQOL-Bref scale were used. In this study, Cronbach's alpha value of WHOQOL-Bref scale was found to be 0,907. RESULTS: 74,6% of the participants were male and 57,1% were married. The mean age was 33,61±11,14 SD. 18,3% of the participants were primary school graduated; 17,2% were postgraduated. 70,0% of the employees work for an average of 45 hours or more per week. Monthly income was 1700 TL or less in 58,7%, and 4801 TL or more in 5,3% of the employees. The mean scores of physical, psychological, social, environmental and national environmental domains were found as 15,34±2,56 SD; 15,43±2,69 SD; 15,47±3,43 SD; 14,17±2,75 SD and 14,20±2,53 SD respectively. CONCLUSION: In this study, WHOQOL-Bref scale domain scores were found to be higher than many studies. Environmental domain scores were found to be relatively low alike other studies in literature. The quality of life of those with low income was found to be worse as expected. Despite high duration of work, overall perception of health was well reported by most participants. It shows that participants could work because they're healthy. In particular, psychosocial factors such as wage and duration of work affect the quality of life of employees in SMEs. Key Words: Perception Of Health, Perception Of Quality Of Life, SME, WHOQOL-BREF, Worker's Health.