Publication:

An assessment of quality of life of transgender adults in an urban area of Burdwan district, West Bengal

Background Transgender people are stigmatised in our society and are being discriminated in every aspect of life. Many of them experience abuses in various forms since childhood. Accordingly these might have adverse consequences on their life and modify their quality of life (QOL). This aspect needs to be explored. In this context the present study was conducted to assess the QOL among adult transgender people and to find its association with their socio-demographic characteristics in Burdwan municipal area of Burdwan district.

Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted during July-December 2016 among 79 adult transgender people residing in the study area. Sample size was based on 50% having satisfactory QOL with 95% CI, 10% relative error, and 10% non-response rate with finite population correction (total target reference population 96). Subjects were selected by simple random sampling and recruited for interview by time space sampling. Socio-demographic characteristics were assessed by a predesigned schedule and QOL was assessed by using a validated Bengali version of WHO-QOL BREF questionnaires.

Results 56.9% people were found to be have good QOL score as a whole. Maximum and minimum percentages of good QOL score was found in environmental domain (84.7%) and social relationship domain (45.8%). A significant positive correlation was found between education and monthly income with QOL score while negative correlation between age and QOL score. Marital status, current living status and occupation were found to have a statistically significant association with QOL score.

Conclusions The study measured QOL as well as identified some important socio-demographic variables which affected QOL among transgender people. These findings can help the government to plan conceptually to improve QOL in this special transgender group of population by some legislation, social awareness and facilities dedicated towards them.