Aim: Effect of age and gender on quality of life in patients of obstructive jaundice.

Methodology: This was a case control study conducted in OPD of General Surgery, Unit-1, Civil Hospital, Karachi. It is non-probability, consecutive sampling technique. The sample size was 195 subjects.  87 patients had an age between 18-60 years whereas 108 patients had >60 years of age. Either gender was included. QoL was measured by using SF-36 based on 8 domains. Data were analyzed through SPSS version-21

Results: Significant effect of age in obstructive jaundice patients on their QOL (p<0.01) where patients aged from 18 to 60 years had significantly higher SF-36 quality of life scores, both overall and in all eight individual domains than patients aged >60 years. Gender of the obstructive jaundice patients did not have a significant effect on their QOL, though the female patients had higher SF-36 quality of life scores, both overall and in all eight individual domains.

Conclusion: Quality of life of obstructive jaundice patients were more improved with the age between 20-60 years than age >60 years, whereas gender had no significant impact on the quality of life.