doiSerbia

Rating on life valuation scale

Lapčević Mirjana (Dom zdravlja 'Voždovac', Beograd)
Dimitrijević Ivan (Institut za psihijatriju, Klinički centar Srbije, Beograd)
Ristić Jelena (Zdravstveni centar, Leskovac)
Vuković Mira (Zdravstveni centar, Valjevo)

Introduction: World Health Organization (WHO) Articles of Association defines health as the state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease. According to this definition, the concept of health is enlarged and consists of public and personal needs, motives and psychological nature of a person, education, culture, tradition, religion, etc. All these needs do not have the same rank on life valuation scale. Objective: The objective of our study was ranking 6 most important values of life out of 12 suggested. Method: Questionnaire about Life Valuation Scale was used as method in our study. This questionnaire was created by the Serbian Medical Association and Department of General Medicine, School of Medicine, University of Belgrade. It analyzed 10% of all citizens in 18 places in Serbia, aged from 25 to 64 years, including Belgrade commune Vozdovac. Survey was performed in health institutions and in citizens’ residencies in 1995/96 by doctors, nurses and field nurses. Results: A total of 14,801 citizens was questioned in Serbia (42.57% of men, 57.25% of women), and 852 citizens in Vozdovac commune (34.62% of men, 65.38% of women). People differently value things in their lives. On the basis of life values scoring, the most important thing in people’s life was health. In Serbia, public rank of health was 4.79%, and 4.4% in Vozdovac commune. Relations in family were on the second place, and engagement in politics was on the last place. Conclusion: The results of our study in the whole Serbia and in Vozdovac commune do not differ significantly from each other, and all of them demonstrated that people attached the greatest importance to health on the scale of proposed values. Relationships in family were on the second place, and political activity was on the last place. High ranking of health and relationships in family generally shows that general practitioners in Serbia take important part in primary health care and promotion of health care management. They have responsibility to preserve and enhance health of a person, family and society as a whole.

Keywords: life valuation scale, health, family