Effect of guardianship on the quality of life of people with disabilities in Spain

Background: Despite the unquestionable progress in the treatment and legal and social recognition of persons with disabilities with modified capacity,the role and social position of the collective still hinders the development of a full life. The objective was to know the possible effect of the guardianship exercise on the quality of life of persons with disabilities who reside permanently in residential centres and whose ordinary guardianship falls to the public FASAD Foundation. Methods: Correlational quantitative study. The GENCAT quality of life scale adapted so that the population under study itself was in charge of assessing the areas and dimensions related to their bio-psycho-social well-being. The starting hypothesis is was that exists a better perception of the levels of quality of life with a longer time of guardianship protection. In addition, the research questions were, What effects does the tutelary protection exercised by the FASAD Foundation have on the perception of the quality of life of the interviewed subjects? How do the variables (sex, place of residence and time of guardianship) affect the perception of quality of life? What dimensions present in the quality of life analysis are most affected by the variable time of guardianship? For the analysis of the statistical data, was used the SPSS (R) Statistics 22.0, a descriptive and bivariate exploration was carried out that showed the level of association and correlation between the variables studied. Results: People under guardianship for a period of more than 3 years present better results in all the dimensions studied -except for rights- regardless of their sex or place of residence. Women under guardianship for a period less than 3 years obtained a general percentile of quality of life of 13.6, while those who were under guardianship for a period greater than 3 years obtained 18.9, in the same way it happened with men (14.1 vs 20.7) The ANOVA statistic and the Pearson correlation table confirm the association and relationship between the variable time of care and the general percentiles of quality of life. Conclusions: The exercise of guardianship has a positive effect on all the dimensions that integrate the quality of life construct. In addition, knowing the self-perception of the quality of life of the people under guardianship favors knowing the true impact of a support and promotion mechanism such as guardianship.