OBJECTIVES: Worldwide 1.3 billion people – or 16% of the global population – live with significant disability today. Our aim is to analyse the effects of various socio-demographic factors, physical disability, and pain among female polio survivors and to compare their quality of life (QQL) with gender- and age-matched osteoporotic women.

METHODS: Our quantitative cross-sectional study was performed in Hungary in 2019. The data gathering was performed through online recruitment, non-randomized and convenience sampling. 142 female polio survivors and 50 female with osteoporosis got also enrolled in the study. The questionnaire included 3 main topics: socio-demographic issues, health status and quality of life survey using the 36-Item Short Form Survey questionnaire. Absolute and relative frequencies were determined during the statistical calculations. Either χ² trial or Fischer test was used for nominal variables, and T-test was used for continuous variables (p <0.05). We used the IBM SPSS Statistics Version 22 program.

RESULTS: The mean age of polio survivors was 63.43 ± 5.41 years, while the women with osteoporosis was 64.5 ± 6.83 years. Limbs paralyzed by polio showed a strong correlation with the Energy / Fatigue dimension (p = 0.044). Pain has an effect on the overall health value of polio patients (p = 0.021). Comparing QQL with osteoporotic women, 8 dimensions showed significantly worse values among polio survivors (p <0.05).

CONCLUSIONS: Despite the decades of disability and deteriorating general health, female survivors of poliomyelitis have adapted to their life. On the other hand, other dimensions of the quality of their life lag significantly behind in comparison to the women struggling with osteoporosis.